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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Warns “It’s time to cancel everything” as ICU Cases Hit New High

by | Jul 14, 2020

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday that the city’s COVID-19 threat meter is “on the border of going to red,” the highest level, which would mean a complete shutdown in L.A. owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

As of now, Garcetti said during his daily press briefing, the threat level remains at “orange” even as California Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier Monday ordered all counties to close indoor operations for their restaurants, movie theaters, wineries, zoos and bars as cases continued to spike in the state, forcing a return to more restrictive safer-at-home orders.

Additionally, said Newsom, L.A. and 31 other counties on the state’s monitoring list must close fitness centers, places of worship, nail and hair salons and indoor malls.

The city reported 964 of L.A. County’s 2,593 COVID-19 new cases today with a notable jump in cases for ages 18-40 — 50% of new cases and the highest number of infections among any age group. He said the infection rate — or R — has risen from 1.01 late last week to about 1.14 today.

There now is a record-high total of 2,103 hospitalizations in the county, with 766 beds left. Monday saw an increase to 565 ICU patients compared with 397 a month ago, Garcetti said. There are currently 141 ICU beds remaining in the greater Los Angeles area. The number of available ICU beds seems to have grown — from Friday — even as the number of people occupying them has grown. This, one assumes, means some of the region’s surge bed inventory has been pressed into service.

Garcetti announced an increase of tests, from 80,000 last week to 100,000 this week. That’s a 20 percent surge, but that’s in a county that has 10 million residents.

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