Los Angeles County coronavirus deaths reach 10,000 total

Los Angeles County reached 10,000 coronavirus deaths total on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.

Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, called it a “terrible milestone” and said more could have been done to prevent it from being reached.

“Most heartbreaking is that if we had done a better job of reducing transmission of the virus, many of these deaths would not have happened,” she said.

The typical daily death rate for all combined causes countywide is typically about 170 people. Now, about 150 are dying per day in LA county of the coronavirus alone, according to the AP.

The news comes as The Golden State recorded a record high of 442 coronavirus-related fatalities on Tuesday. 

Los Angeles’s COVID-19 struggle has significantly worsened in recent months, after leveling out and remaining relatively low August through October. As cases began to rise around the country, the county experienced skyrocketing infections.

Restriction efforts to try to combat further spread have been extended, with the Southern California stay-at-home order now in effect for at least another three weeks. Medical personnel have reported extremely limited hospital capacity throughout the county, resorting to treating patients in hospital gift shops and conference rooms and turning away ambulances.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that the first case of a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus had been detected in California. So far, no deaths from the new variant have been recorded in the U.S.