The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County dipped slightly today for the first time in more than a month, according to data released by health officials.
The 7,544 coronavirus patients reported as hospitalized Sunday is still magnitudes higher than almost any other point in the pandemic, but it was slightly smaller than the 7,627 people reported as hospitalized Saturday.
Sunday was the first time that number declined since cases began skyrocketing in November.
On Nov. 22, officials said there were 1,401 people in the hospital being treated for COVID-19. Even that number, they warned, was a worrying increase of 35% over the past week.
But that was just the beginning of what seemed like an unstoppable march upward, with that number reaching 4,203 hospitalizations by Dec. 14 and 6,708 by Christmas.
Likewise, the number of people in hospitals specifically around Long Beach climbed up and up, from 135 at the end of November to 514 as of Dec. 31, which is the most recent date the city reported coronavirus data.
It’s unclear if hospitalizations in LA County have actually plateaued. Sunday’s number was a point-in-time snapshot, and officials fear people gathering for Christmas and New Year’s Eve will pile a new surge of patients on hospitals already struggling to keep up with demand.
LA County averaged 14,395 daily new coronavirus infections this week, even more than the daily average of 13,819 last week.
Health care workers are already exhausted and overextended, Cathy Chidester, director of the county Emergency Medical Services agency, said earlier this week.
“They are pale. They are trying to do the best they can with limited resources at this point because there’s so many patients,” she said. ” … When you go into the hospital and into the ICUs, it’s still very quiet, but believe me, it’s a disaster. It is just heart-wrenching what is happening within our hospitals.”
More than one in five patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are in an ICU, which are essentially maxed out, according to a weighted formula that state and local officials use to track capacity.
LA County also reported 91 new deaths Sunday, bringing the countywide death toll to 10,773, including 395 Long Beach residents.
City News Service contributed to this report.