Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. (Photo: Kevin Sanders for California Globe)
Mayor Eric Garcetti Warns Of Higher COVID-19 Rates in LA in Coming Weeks
More cases, lack of assistance likely to extend lockdown in LA County
By Evan Symon, January 9, 2021 8:03 am
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Thursday new highs in the number of COVID-19 deaths in Los Angeles, giving the city little hope of reopening in the near future.
Among the surprising figures given by the Mayor in his address was the staggering number of daily deaths compared to other causes of death in the city.
“The near record of 259 daily COVID-19 deaths in LA County on Tuesday was more than all the homicides in 2019 in LA City combined,” noted the Mayor on Thursday, one day before the figure increased to over 300 deaths in the County on Friday alone according to LA Public Health.
COVID-19 Daily Update:
January 8, 2021
New Cases: 18,313 (889,405 to date)
New Deaths: 318 (11,863 to date)
Current Hospitalizations: 8,074 pic.twitter.com/mvUsPDT9FL— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) January 9, 2021
Both Garcetti and County health officials also warned that a likely surge in cases caused by Christmas and New Year’s travel was expected in the coming days, with LA’s dramatic rise in new cases and deaths throughout the week signaling that it is likely already happening.
“I don’t believe that this is a new plateau that will automatically come down,” added Garcetti on Thursday. “In fact, it’s my belief that this is just a pause before a new peak brought on by the evidence we see of too much movement around Christmas and New Year’s. So hold on, because things may get worse.”
Health officials concurred with the Mayor.
“If that transmission did increase over Christmas and New Year’s, we’ll start to see those hospitalizations and case counts rise, and that transmission rate is really actually much higher,” explained Los Angeles County Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly. “And that flattening of the number of the new hospitalizations really should not be interpreted that transmission and spread is stopping.”
Growing COVID figures, lack of assistance likely to extend lockdown
Mayor Garcetti also pleaded for assistance, noting that they were in great need of everything from additional ICU space to vaccines.
“Give Los Angeles what we need,” said the Mayor. “Just as we sent doctors to New York and PPE to other parts of the country early on when they were peaking, this is our peak. And we need you. We need national leadership, we need vaccines, and we need resources to pay for them.”
The growing number of COVID-19 cases in LA County, already the highest per county in the nation, has also sealed the fate of any hope of an early lockdown end in the County, with tight restrictions expected to continue for many more months.
“People just keep getting sick from it,” said Diego Fox, a small business advisor based in East Los Angeles to the Globe. “And with no end to it now, it feels like this big doom just descended down. COVID has both affected and infected a lot of people here, especially Latinos. A year ago, I was just answering basic questions on getting loans for a small business or helping them through budget questions. Now I have had questions like ‘If my dad, the owner, dies, who will have to shut down his store?’ or ‘Can I fire my employees if all 5 of them have gotten the coronavirus?'”
“From what the Mayor said yesterday, not only will this continue, this is going to get worse. No one wants to say just how many places have closed down for good. No one wants to say why neighborhoods have a lot of open houses now if there have been no evictions. But it’s really happening. We need more help, and we’re not getting it.”
The need for additional help was brought back up several more times by the Mayor on Thursday, who noted that it wasn’t coming, at least not from the federal government.
“I would love for the FDA to give us clinicians,” said Mayor Garcetti. “But this has been one of the problems. The federal government has basically told cities ‘you’re on your own,’ and we know that most doctors and nurses are on the frontline fighting COVID-19. To be clear, there are trained health professionals — paramedic-firefighters — on every site, although they’re not the ones reaching into cars to tell people how to do it.”
The Mayor, as well as other Los Angeles health officials, are expected to give an update on the rising number of cases and possible surge by early next week.
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October 16, 2018 -
Strictest lockdown….highest number of “cases” California and Los Angeles in particular….total failure. Garcetti is in WAY over his head here…
It’s difficult to get away from the Dear Leader stuff because it seems to be piped in everywhere, but there is really no reason to listen to Garcetti, Newsom, and their entourages anymore. The numbers continually given are out-of-context, inaccurate, and obviously only recited to induce fear and enable eternal control of the public. We would be better off to tune these people out completely if possible. Then, at least, we wouldn’t be subject to being infected with the highly contagious “fear disease” these people carry and spread.
Ask yourself why there is no talk of the 99% who recover completely? No talk of treatment options that are available (possibly not in California for apparent ideological reasons), and have been shown to work, such as early intervention of the hydrochloroquine, etc. cocktail? No explanation for the cherry-picking of “essential businesses?” No embarrassment about the inconsistencies and hypocrisy such as what we’ve seen from Newsom’s unmasked French Laundry hobnobbing bash and other politicians’ careless behavior that clearly show they don’t believe in their own preaching? I could go on, but you all know the drill by now. Time to at least reclaim our own mental health by NO LONGER listening to Garcetti and his ilk.
ShowandTell, well put.
Thank you PDR!
Wow he’s a COVID whisperer amazing how the can predict where the virus is going but don’t have a clue how to stop it total incompetent failure as a leader he can stand there and tell us what the future holds but can’t or won’t do a thing that would help us have a better future typical California leader
Wow he’s a COVID whisperer amazing how the can predict where the virus is going but don’t have a clue how to stop it total incompetent failure as a leader he can stand there and tell us what the future holds but can’t or won’t do a thing that would help us have a better future typical California leader it’s not hard to predict California’s future under our present leadership Einstein
This is purely about political power and the destruction of our society and economy at the orders of their Chinese masters. Pray that Biden will not get in because once he consolidates power he will crush the life out of everyone here with no hope (1000 years of darkness).
CW: I can’t help noticing that you think there is still a chance that Biden won’t get in. Works for me! Let’s hope and (really) pray that you are correct.
These guys keep sticking to this lockdown and its not helping. The deaths and infections keep going up. Can they not come up with another plan? I think its time for Garretti and Newsome to step aside. They have had a year to come up with something but they failed. We are the worst state in the country. Either they step down or we rip them out by their heads.
Pure fear porn, designed to keep an ignorant populace fearful and compliant while they reengineer society to make everyone dependent on Government handouts or Universal Basic Income.
Interesting how the metrics keep changing and Ventura County daily reports now report Covid deaths without mentioning co-morbidities as they used to…
All lies and “statistics”, used to break the independence of small business people who tend to vote Republican…
This whole CCP virus appears to be a coordinated effort to weaken and break the American economy, and install puppet Joe & the Ho VP, who espouse Communist values.
Praying that an 11th hour “Hail Mary” legal challenge, like the one just filed by EIPCa against Newsom, Padilla, Becerra and several other county election officials who were complicit in the recent fraudulent Presidential election, under Covid19 procedural changes that weakened CA’s already weak election controls.
ExCaliExpat, excellent!
YES!
Fear fear fear, blah blah blah, meanwhile hospitalizations have gone down in LA county 4 days in a row, where’s the Christmas/New Year surge fear mongers? They blamed Thanksgiving for the surge, but the surge started 2 weeks BEFORE Thanksgiving.
At least the silver lining to all this fear-basex BS is that I get to work from home in shorts and a t-shirt, listening to my favorite background music, with my dog asleep at my feet, and I don’t have to rack up wasted commuting mileage on my beloved vehicle…
Unfortunately, the larger economy is being DESTROYED by these tyrranical despots, feeding fear and division into our culture and economy…