For the third time in four days, Los Angeles County set another record today for new COVID-19 cases, with nearly 9,000 infections confirmed, while hospitalizations continued rising at record levels and deaths spiked to a level not seen in months.

The county reported 8,860 new coronavirus infections on Friday, shattering the daily record of 7,854 set on Thursday. The number of people hospitalized stood at 2,668, the highest point of the entire pandemic.

Health officials also announced 60 new deaths, continuing an upward trend that began in late November. Two weeks ago, the county’s average number of daily deaths was 21.

“Los Angeles County continues to experience a pandemic that is moving in a direction that will cause significantly more suffering and deaths,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. “As case numbers and hospitalizations continue to rapidly increase, the number of individuals who will experience severe health outcomes will also increase. The best thing to do right now and in the upcoming holiday season is to stay at home and not travel.”

The 8,860 new cases reported by the county, along with 148 announced by Long Beach and 93 by Pasadena, lifted the countywide cumulative total since the start of the pandemic to 430,824. The 60 new deaths, and one additional fatality announced by Pasadena, lifted the overall total to 7,843.

The staggering new case numbers came as the county and the rest of Southern California stood on the verge of falling under a state-mandated “regional stay-at-home” order that will be triggered if intensive-care unit bed availability falls below 15%.

https://lbpost.com/news/when-stay-at-home-order-state-whats-open-closed-icu-capacity

Officials have said that’s likely to happen within a matter of days and include strict new restrictions on businesses across all of Southern California. State officials reported that current ICU capacity in the region was down to 20.6%, as of Dec. 3.