Checking in from LA
California (40 million) now has 39,684 confirmed infections and 1,534 confirmed deaths. Our infection rate is 101 per 100,000 residents and our death rate is 3.9 per 100,000. We are on the low end as compared to many other states, but on the other hand our infection and death rates are rising, not falling. I wonder whether we have flattened and elongated the curve and when it’s going to turn down.
Los Angeles County (10 million) now has 17,567 confirmed infections and 800 confirmed deaths. Our infection rate is 174 per 100,000 residents and our death rate is 7.9 per 100,000. We in LA now have some of the worst infection and death rates in the state.
2450 patients are hospitalized in LA with Covid 19 and 718 are in the intensive care units. The disease has been running rampant in many of our nursing homes, and in some jails and prisons. Initially the highest infection rates were in the higher income communities like Beverly Hills, Brentwood or West Hollywood; recently the high growth rates of the new infections have been in lower income communities like Compton, Inglewood or Cudahy where social distancing is far more difficult, and many residents work in high risk jobs, labeled essential work.
The Governor is still urging people to stay home, but he has opened up the hospitals for elective surgeries because the social distancing and stay at home orders have worked resulting in far fewer infections and hospitalizations from Covid 19 than projected.
And no we are not drinking bleach or injecting sunlight, nor are we taking our old malaria pills, hope you are well and staying safe.
I do wonder, however, why we can’t test adequately, can’t manufacture the PPE and masks to keep our workers safe in health care settings, can’t get UI checks out to the unemployed eligible for them, can’t get stimulus checks out to the many who urgently need them and why we allow the well-capitalized hotel and restaurant chains to jump to the front of the lines leaving nothing left for the true small businesses who so desperately need them to stay afloat.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 4/24/20