California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) announced on Jan. 7 that 10 temporary morgues would be set up in the parking lot adjacent to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s building to handle the record number of bodies it’s seeing, Yahoo News reports. The facility will include at least five 53-foot trailers supplied by the state and five more supplied by the county, along with an unknown number of “ground refrigerated storage containers.” Imperial County and others are also forced to set up these units — a total of 88 altogether, according to the OES.
In Los Angeles, a total of 761 beds are available in the county’s 70 “911-receiving” hospitals, and 54 adult ICU beds. Some 78% of all ICU patients in the county are being treated for COVID. Ten days ago the percentage of COVID-infected ICU patients in those same hospitals was about 50%.
Los Angeles County on Jan. 8 reported its first-ever count of more than 300 daily coronavirus-related deaths, at 318, Yahoo noted. By comparison, an average of 170 people die in the county every day of all other causes.
Also, Los Angeles Public Health Chief Science Officer Dr. Paul Simon on Jan. 8 said that, exactly two weeks after Christmas, “The very high numbers I will report today are, sadly, not a surprise.” Health officials had warned that there would be a surge in infections two weeks after Christmas. “This very clearly is the latest surge for the winter holidays and New Year’s,” said Simon. “And it’s likely to continue over the next week or two.”
