Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials reported Thursday the single highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since January with more than 8,600 cases countywide.
Just a day earlier, Public Health reported more than 6,500 cases for the first time since Jan. 30, doubling the figure reported last week. Thursday’s figure is the highest since Jan. 23.
“The staggeringly fast rise and a health care system strain that has followed similarly steep increases elsewhere in the world is the cause of our alarm,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a media briefing Wednesday. “As we know from our past, as planned efforts don’t succeed in keeping the hospitals stable, we will need to institute additional community mitigation measures where appropriate.”
Although hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively stable at this time, Ferrer noted that both are known to be lagging indicators, as most patients don’t experience severe illness until a few days after testing positive.
Public Health continues to emphasize the importance of getting vaccinated and boosted, which early studies indicate is effective at preventing illness and hospitalization, even with the Omicron variant.
To find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you, visit VaccinateLACounty.com, or to find a testing site, visit covid19.lacounty.gov/testing.
County Public Health officials also released the following updated COVID-19 statistics Thursday:
Countywide COVID-19 cases reported in the past 24 hours: 8,633
Total COVID-19 cases in L.A. County: 1,585,313
New deaths related to COVID-19 reported in the past 24 hours: 24
Total COVID-19 deaths in L.A. County: 27,512
Hospitalizations countywide: 770
Hospitalizations at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as of Dec. 21: 24, with 1,690 discharged since the onset of the pandemic.
COVID-19 cases reported in the Santa Clarita Valley in the past 24 hours: 193, 145 of which came from the city of Santa Clarita.
Total COVID-19 cases in the SCV: 40,720
Total COVID-19 deaths in the SCV as of Dec. 22: 372
Percentage of vaccinated people (at least one dose) in the city of Santa Clarita as of Dec. 16: 77.9%*
Percentage of vaccinated people (at least one dose) in the SCV as of Dec. 16: 74.5%*
*These figures now include all eligible Los Angeles County residents ages 5 and older.
