Covid-19 cases swamp LA as residents reject fear, warnings

LOS ANGELES • For weeks, Los Angeles officials have warned residents of a surge in Covid-19 cases tied to the holidays.

Now, the US' second-largest city and its suburbs have become the country's worst-hit metro area.

San Bernardino, Riverside and Los Angeles rank No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, among big US counties with the highest rates of cases per capita in the past week.

New infections, deaths and hospitalisations all hit record highs in Los Angeles last week.

It may come down to one key difference between now and previous Covid-19 surges.

As Dr Rita Burke, an assistant professor of preventive clinical medicine at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, put it: "In the spring, there was a lot of fear. People really stayed home."

Despite warnings, hundreds of thousands of people travelled or gathered over the Thanksgiving holiday, contributing to the current spike. Many healthcare officials fear the coming holidays will worsen those numbers.

The cost has become alarmingly clear. Hospitals in Southern California are converting space for patients after their region's intensive care units hit full capacity.

The number of people in Los Angeles County who have gotten sick is the highest in the US, at more than 600,000, or one out of every 17 residents. The latest 100,000 cases were added in just eight days.

San Bernardino County has seen patients getting younger, with those aged 18 to 29 accounting for a big leap in cases.

Contact tracing is also a challenge: Only about 60 per cent of those who test positive even return phone calls from local health departments.

Sick people often say they have been only to grocery stores, even though it is unlikely they actually got it there, said Mr Jose Arballo, a spokesman for the department of public health in Riverside County. "They never say they're doing things they shouldn't be doing."

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