THE mayor of Los Angeles has warned that Covid is “the greatest threat to life” the city has ever faced.
Mayor Eric Garcetti made the chilling warning as 33 million Californians entered a draconian lockdown as hospitalisations in the US hit 101,487.
He said: “This is the greatest threat to life in Los Angeles that we have ever faced.
“The simple truth is that we know that Covid-19 rapidly spreads and rapidly spreads as a result of our own behavior, but we also know that we can slow that spread by wearing a mask, by washing our hands.”
The death toll in LA County could hit 11,000 this year after the region suffered 7,800 fatalities already, he warned.
And there were 177,000 new infections recorded across the country yesterday along with 1,138 deaths, the Covid Tracking Project reports.
The United States also recorded another grim record after it emerged that 101,487 people were being treated in hospital for the disease, it has been reported.
According to Worldometer, more than 15 million have been infected with the coronavirus in the US which has an overall death toll of 288,906 – the world’s biggest.
The country continues to battle the respiratory disease as one million new cases were recorded in just five days, John Hopkins reports.
This shows how rapidly the virus is spreading as it took 100 days to reach one million infections when the first cases were recorded in January.
Last week, Garcetti warned LA was nearing “a devastating tipping point” and ordered residents to stay in their homes and avoid social gatherings in new shutdown measures.
“Our City is now close to a devastating tipping point, beyond which the number of hospitalized patients would start to overwhelm our hospital system, in turn risking needless suffering and death,” he said.
The way to avoid a “dreaded scenario” is to refrain from gathering with people from outside your household wherever possible, Garcetti said.
California’s orders, which kick in whenever a region has less than 15 per cent capacity in its intensive care units, allow critical infrastructure to stay open, including schools and dental offices.
This comes as Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said his officers will not enforce the state’s stay-at-home Covid curfew ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom.
The new regional order prohibits private gatherings “of any size”, and asks citizens to adhere to “100 per cent masking” and “physical distancing” in areas with surging infections.
Barnes said yesterday that the order – which affects South California – was a “matter of personal responsibility”, reports ABC7.
He said: “Compliance with health orders is a matter of personal responsibility and not a matter of law enforcement.
“Orange County Sheriff’s deputies will not be dispatched to, or respond to, calls for service to enforce compliance with face coverings, social gatherings, or stay-at-home orders only.”
