WORLD / AMERICAS
Los Angeles County sees deadest day for COVID-19
Published: Jan 10, 2021 03:39 PM

People wait to have a free do-it-yourself COVID-19 test at a walk-in test site in the city of San Gabriel, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, Jan. 9, 2021. (Xinhua)


Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States, reported on Friday 318 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, the first time that more than 300 daily new deaths were counted.

The 318 new deaths lift the countywide coronavirus death toll to 11,863. By comparison, an average of 170 people die of all other causes in the county every day and the number is higher than any other single yearly premature deaths, including heart disease.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made another staggering comparison on Thursday when talking about 259 related deaths in the county on Tuesday, saying the number was "more than all the homicides in 2019 in L.A. City combined."

The county reported another 18,313 coronavirus cases on Friday, one of the highest number of daily new cases, bringing the overall tally since the start of the pandemic to 889,405.

Los Angeles Public Health Chief Science Officer Paul Simon told Friday's online press conference that the number reported was not a surprise as the authority had predicted that a new surge in infections would come 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. We do expect these numbers continue to be high over the next couple of weeks," he added.