COVID hospitalizations up 366% from last month in LA County as virus rises

ANGELS – With the bulk of the new ones COVID-19 infections occurring among the unvaccinated, with the pace of Los Angeles County residents being hospitalized because of the virus has started to rise at an equivalent rate of new cases, while the death rate is also increasing, according to figures released Thursday.

“Over the past few weeks, I have shared with you that cases have increased the rate of hospitalizations at least twice,” said Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer. “However, comparing August 4 to July 4, we see cases and hospitalizations increasing at similar rates. ”

During that time, infections increased 387%, while hospitalizations increased 366%, she said.

“This alarming rise in the increase in hospitalizations is a stark reminder that this virus causes debilitating and dangerous illness in many infected people,” Ferrer said.

Dr Thomas Yadegar, medical director of the intensive care unit at Providence Cedars Sinai Medical Center, sees the increase firsthand in his hospital.

“We have gone several weeks without having any Covid patients and now it has grown exponentially over the past few weeks to the point where we actually have more patients now in our hospital than we had last summer as well. than more intensive care patients, ”he said. noted.

He said patients are mostly younger and healthier, and they are starting to see pediatric patients as well.

“We see a much younger subset of patients in their 20s and 30s. In fact, I have more patients in the hospital now in their 20s and 30s than I have had in the past 18 months combined. We have seen an increasing number of pediatric patients being hospitalized and unfortunately we are also noticing the same in our facility, ”said Yadegar.

LA County isn’t the only hotspot. Orange County officials are also reporting an increase in hospitalizations for Covid. Dr. Victor Waters, chief medical officer at St. Bernardine Medical Center, said San Bernardino County was also seeing an increase.

“In San Bernardino County, we are constantly seeing an increase. We have seen an increase of over 100% in cases since last week. You will see more cases, intensive care patients who are younger patients, again. healthier, which is really worrying. now. We have a fourth wave because we just weren’t prepared. We didn’t have enough people vaccinated to create the kind of protection we needed, “he said. Waters said.

Dr Waters said symptoms include shortness of breath, fever, cough and Covid pneumonia for patients.

“They are often very sick and they get sick very quickly requiring oxygenation to supplement their breathing and some even need to be intubated and put on a ventilator so this is the tragic thing that we already experienced with our last outbreak and we “Start seeing it again with different demographics,” he said.

Waters said the majority of patients are not vaccinated, which also matches data from local health departments. He urges people to get vaccinated, especially in communities of color with low vaccination rates.

“It’s amazing that people don’t understand that most of the people admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. It’s a huge problem. This level of mistrust really kills the patient. community, so I urge them to come out of the fence and get vaccinated. They need to hear the need to get vaccinated from health care workers, doctors like me who are African American and push the vaccine for months. They have to understand that the myths that exist are just not true, “he said.

Yadegar also advocates with the public regarding vaccinations.

“My appeal to your listeners is that if you want to turn a deadly virus into a bad cold or minor flu, then get yourself vaccinated. If you want to avoid being hospitalized for 10 to 14 days, get your shot. you are on the side of nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors, and you want to help us by slowing the spread of this virus, get yourself vaccinated, and if you want to prevent your family from organizing your funeral then get yourself vaccinated “, did he declare. .

Ferrer said about 8% of people infected with the virus now need hospitalization, the vast majority of them were not vaccinated. Meanwhile, the seven-day average number of deaths has risen to seven, from four to five a month ago.

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Ferrer said there had been a 240% increase in hospitalizations over the past month among unvaccinated people aged 50 or older, and a 237% increase in hospitalizations for younger unvaccinated residents.

During the month of July, vaccinated residents represented only 13% of people hospitalized with the virus. She noted that of the 5.1 million people vaccinated in the county as of Aug. 10, 21,532 have tested positive for COVID-19, for a rate of 0.42%. A total of 549 fully vaccinated people were hospitalized, for a rate of 0.01%, and 55 died, for a rate of 0.0011%. The rates of vaccinated people who have been hospitalized and died have both increased slightly from last week.

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“These small increases prove that fully vaccinated people are becoming infected and that with these very high rates of community transmission, more fully vaccinated people are getting post-vaccination infections,” said Ferrer. “However, these data should also provide significant reassurance that fully vaccinated people remain at relatively low risk of being infected, still below 1%, and even less at risk of having a poor outcome if infected. ”

She added, “Trends like this are why we are so certain that vaccines do exactly what they’re supposed to do here in LA County. People who are vaccinated are exceptionally well protected from hospitalization. We have seen cases increase among those vaccinated and hospitalizations are increasing, it is even difficult to make a comparison between the experience they have with COVID and the serious illness that the infection continues to cause among the unvaccinated. ”

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His comments came on a day when the county actually saw a slight drop in the total number of hospitalized COVID patients. According to state figures, there were 1,645 COVID patients in county hospitals, up from 1,648 on Wednesday. There were 361 people in intensive care, one more than Wednesday.

The county reported 23 more deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the county’s death toll to 24,854. Another 3,865 cases have been reported, giving the county a running total throughout the pandemic of 1 339 138.

The mobile average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 4.5% on Thursday, down slightly from 4.7% a week ago.

As of August 8, 72% of eligible county residents aged 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 63% are fully immunized. Of the county’s overall population of around 10.3 million people – including over one million people ineligible for vaccines because they are under the age of 12 – 62% have received at least one dose and 54% are fully vaccinated.

Ferrer said statistics show unvaccinated people are 3.6 times more likely to be infected with COVID than vaccinated people.

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