Swish! Ben Affleck and his son, Samuel, had a ball during a father-son outing at the Tuesday, December 13, Lakers game.
01.12.2022 - 01:29 / deadline.com
Los Angeles looks to be in the midst of a new winter Covid surge that’s so far hitting earlier and harder than it did last year.
Today’s 24-hour case count for L.A. County rose to 4,353, which is the highest daily total in nearly 4 months. The last time a single-day case count topped today’s tally was 4,549 on August 8, at the end of last summer’s wave. The current infection total is 43% above where it was a little over a week ago on Wednesday November 23. That’s one of the last days for which there are no reporting delays and the count was 3,077.
By comparison, on November 30, 2021 there were 1,853 new cases identified, a count that was generally in line with the averages that week. Daily counts are more variable now, in part because funding has been cut and in part because more people are using at-home tests, the results of which are generally not reported. But the numbers are undoubtedly higher. And it’s not just case counts.
Over the past two weeks, the 7-day average test positivity in L.A. County has grown more than 100%, from 6.5% the Wednesday before last to 13.4% today, public health officials reported.
Covid-related hospitalizations in the county topped 1,000 yesterday. That’s the first time they’ve breached that threshold since the end of the summer wave in mid-August. The number of Covid-infected hospital patients rose again today to 1,132, with 122 being treated in intensive care. That’s a 70% increase over the 666 Covid-infected patients who were hospitalized just over two weeks ago. And given that hospitalizations lag case counts by about two weeks and the daily infection count is still increasing, hospitalizations are likely to continue rising through at least mid-December and maybe beyond, depending
Swish! Ben Affleck and his son, Samuel, had a ball during a father-son outing at the Tuesday, December 13, Lakers game.
Embattled Los Angeles City Councilman Kevin de León defended his decision not to resign, as colleagues continue to shun him and, last week, he got into a physical altercation with an activist at a community event.
In the words of Micheal Ray Richardson, “The ship be sinking.”
Another 4,744 Covid infections were reported today by Los Angeles County. That’s up from 4,353 yesterday, continuing a surge in daily cases that could soon lead to a renewed requirement for people to wear masks in all indoor public spaces.
Winter in Los Angeles means cold nights, Santa Anas, a traffic crush around malls and, for the past few years, a surge in Covid cases.