Los Angeles COVID-19 infections double in one day

Los Angeles reported just over 6,500 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, more than double the 3,052 cases that were reported on Tuesday. 

“These numbers make it crystal clear that we’re headed into a very challenging time over the holiday,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said of Wednesday’s case count, which also included infections from health departments in Long Beach and Pasadena.

“If our case numbers continue to increase at a rapid pace over this week and next, we could be looking at case numbers we have never seen before,” she added, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Earlier this week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) said that he did not “see a lockdown” coming for the city as case rates already increased. 

“I think we’re so much better protected than we were,” the mayor said. “I do think that restrictions such as masking indoors will continue, especially as these cases go up. We’ll have to follow our hospitalizations very carefully.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced on Wednesday that “well over 50 percent” of cases in the state could be attributed to the omicron variant, the U.S.’s dominant COVID-19 strain. 

Studies have indicated that omicron, however, is less likely to cause hospitalization than the delta variant. 

California has already reimposed its statewide indoor mask mandate until at least Jan. 15, and it will now require health care workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.