“We are all still living through the nightmare of this surge; last week, on average, 217 people died each day from COVID-19, and two days last week, we reported that more than 300 people died each day,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Now is the time to remain super vigilant against this deadly virus and continue to stay home as much as possible.
“Please stay home on Super Bowl Sunday.”
Despite a decrease in COVID-19 number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, the public must remain vigilant according to the L.A. Dept. of Health. L.A. County is still in the restrictive state tier of purple as daily cases remain very high and transmission of COVID-19 is still widespread throughout the county.
Meanwhile Hero Pay is acting like its own virus closing a number of grocery stores in L.A County. Kroger, the parent company of Ralphs and Food 4 Less, is shutting down two of its stores in Long Beach as they feel hero pay, which sees an increase of $4 per hour for some grocery store workers, was imposed without proper discussions.
Last week, L.A. County received 146,000 doses with a large amount being reserved for second doses. More than 85,000 appointments have been reserved for second dose vaccine administration at county sites through February 19.
“People who were vaccinated at one of the five large capacity County sites or one of the smaller county-operated community sites are receiving emails notifying them of the date and place for their second dose appointment,” was stated on the L.A. County Health Dept. website. People vaccinated at other sites or other clinics in L.A. will be notified about their second dose appointment.
As of Monday, February 1, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 85 new deaths and 4,223 new cases of COVID-19. There were 5,398 people with COVID-19 hospitalized with 27% of these people in the ICU.
Public Health identified 1,120,895 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 16,854 deaths. Across the Southland: within Los Angeles County shows 1,062,587 cases, within Long Beach with 48,096 cases and within Pasadena with 10,212. According to race and ethnicity, COVID-19 statistics show: American Indian/Alaska Native with 1,853; Asian with 46,016; Black with 36,896; Hispanic/Latino with 505,179; Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander with 4,018; White with 104,875; those of other race and ethnicity with 107,442 and 256,308 under investigation.
“For the moment, we are headed in a positive direction in bringing our cases down – the last thing we need right now are super-spreader events that set us back and potentially could lead to more cases, serious illness and tragic deaths,” said Ferrer. “Only through the actions of each business and each individual in L.A. County can we continue to see a reduction in transmission. In order to move forward in our recovery, everyone must play by the rules that are in place to keep all of us as safe as possible.”
For more information and statistics on COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, please visit http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/
For more detailed information on COVID-19 vaccination plans in L.A. County and to sign up for a vaccination newsletter, visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com.
