Hospitals At Breaking Point, As Malibu Is An Island Of Comparatively-Light Contagion
Written by 991KBU on December 22, 2020
California once again shattered a new daily record for most number of coronavirus in a single day yesterday.
Our state has recorded a half-million coronavirus cases in the last two weeks.
Hospitals … every hospital in the state … are making plans about deciding who lives and who dies.
Four field hospitals have been set up.
Dozens of patients are being treated in them … and the state tryinmg to bring in hundreds of additional health care providers.
Many of those requests are going unfilled.
Remember that surge hospital that was set up in L A last winter … to handle overflow COVID patients?
The surge hospital is not going to open again.
There would be no way to staff it … one doctor said.
Entire areas of California may run out of room even in surge capacity units by the end of the month and early in January.
Los Angeles County is now giving better information about recent COVID 19 infection rates on local communities.
The county Department of Public Health yesterday released a count of COVID 19 cases confirmed in just the past 14 days.
That gives us a better picture of the most recent trend.
Malibu has reported 194 cases of COVID 19 over the past 10 months.
14 of those cases were in the last two weeks.
The Santa Monica Mountains area has reported 262 cases of COVID 19 over the past 10 months.
53 of those cases in the mountains area were reported in the past 14 days.
The adjusted case rate … the number of cases per 100 thousand people … has also been released.
Countywide … the calculation is that 16 hundred 55 people per 100 thousand population have been diagnosed with the disease in the past 2 weeks.
Malibu’s rate is far … far below that.
If Malibu were a city of 100 thousand people … only 21 would have been diagnosed with the disease in the last two weeks.
The rate for the surrounding Santa Monica Mountains is also way below the county average… at 53 cases per hundred thousand people.
Again … the countywide rate is 16 hundred 55 people per 100 thousand population have been diagnosed with the disease in the past 2 weeks.
The City of Malibu and Malibu Medical Group again today will offer free drive-through Coronavirus testing at City .
Preregistration is required … at the city’s website.
All people must be in line by 2 o’clock this afternoon to get the test.
The current stay at home order is likely to be extended … said Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday.
Law enforcement is especially hard hit.
More than 10% of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s employees are in quarantine due to the coronavirus, a number officials attributed to the explosion of cases throughout the county.
Lieutenants have staggered schedules, hired extra staff and encouraged strategies to limit transmission … the Los Angeles Times reports.
Mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing now the rules.
This comes as the department is devoting considerable resources to crack down on party houses across the county.
67 arrests were made at parties late Saturday and early Sunday, Deputy Joana Warren said.
And over the weekend … 17 arrests were made at a drunken drivi33ng checkpoint in Malibu.
Three of those drivers were drunk … according to deputies.
Ten drivers were driving on suspended licenses … or driving unlicensed vehicles.
And four were arrested for other suspected crimes … one sped away from the checkpoint at speeds of above 100 miles per hour.
If anyone is in douby about what type of drivers have taken over PCH at night … that weekend checkpoint shoukd clear up any misconceptions.
