Manhattan Beach COVID-19 #s Continue To Rise; County Hits Record

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — The number of Manhattan Beach residents testing positive for COVID-19 went from 607 [Friday, Dec. 12] to 615 yesterday, [Saturday, Dec. 13], an increase of eight. Testing from the day prior, showed nine more MB residents testing positive. The 615 positive test cases represent the total number of cases in Manhattan Beach since Los Angeles County began collecting data in March.

Cities in the Manhattan Beach area have the following number of positive test cases since the county started to collect data:

• Beverly Hills — 1,194
• Carson — 3,417
• Culver City — 831
• El Segundo — 252
• Gardena — 2,357
• Hawthorne — 3,871
• Hermosa Beach — 424
• Inglewood —5,315
• Lawndale — 1,291
• Lomita — 433
• Palos Verdes Estates — 163
• Rancho Palos Verdes — 536
• Redondo Beach —1,113
• Rolling Hills — 16
• Rolling Hills Estates — 93
• Santa Monica — 1,872
• Torrance — 2,536

Today in LA County there were 70 new deaths and 11,476 new cases of confirmed COVID-19, according to LA County. To date, Public Health has identified 512,872 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 8,269 deaths.

Said LA County in a news release, "All key Public Health indicators are increasing to record levels. One month ago, on November 12, the 5-day average of cases was 2,134 and today the 5-day average is 10,034; this is an increase of 370% in just one month. The 5-day average of deaths one month ago, on November 12, was 12; today, average daily deaths it’s 62. In just 30 days our deaths have increased 416% across the County. During that same time frame, the positivity rate has increased 141%; today, the daily test positivity rate is 14.2%. And hospitalizations increased 303% in one month; today we are reporting 3,850 COVID-19 hospitalizations, and 22% of COVID-19 patients are in the ICU.

"Our daily case numbers are unlike any we have ever seen in our county and reflect extraordinarily high rates of community transmission; activities we were able to do just a few weeks back, now present far too much risk for virus transmission."

Intensive care bed capacity throughout the Southern California region sunk to 5.3 percent Saturday, and has been hitting a new low each day for the past several days as coronavirus continued to surge across the state.

"We're in uncharted territory at this point," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. "We're seeing daily numbers of cases and hospitalizations that we've not experienced and frankly did not anticipate. Our intensive care unit capacity continues to drop. We're on a very dangerous track to seeing unprecedented and catastrophic suffering and death here in L.A. County if we can't stop the surge. And in order to stop this very dangerous surge, today I'm making a request to everyone in L.A. County to stay home as much as possible."

Ferrer said if current trends continue, the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized and in intensive care will double in two weeks. According to the county Department of Public Health website, the county as of Thursday had 606 non-specialized adult hospital beds available, and 71 adult ICU beds.

Patch reporter Kat Schuster contributed to this report.