Weekly L.A. County COVID deaths top summer surge. ‘There’s a whole lot of winter left’
LA TimesRegistered nurse Shawna Gibson prepares an IV and medications for a coronavirus-positive patient at White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles in 2021. “With every increase in cases for the last almost three years, a few weeks later, we’ve always seen a corresponding increase in death,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. “It’s tragic, but we know that when there’s more transmission, more people end up being hospitalized, and sadly, some of the people with severe illness don’t make it.” Many officials and experts point out that L.A. County — and the country as a whole — is better positioned to weather a winter wave this year given the widespread availability of vaccines and access to effective therapeutics. “It’s also a great time to make sure you have an ample supply of COVID tests.” This year’s flu season is shaping up to be the worst in the last decade, UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said at a campus town hall last week. However, the concentration of RSV in L.A. County’s wastewater “is now at the highest point we’ve seen this entire season,” Ferrer said.