By Dominic Taylor-
Los Angeles is facing an alarming rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations as one of America’s most popular holiday destinations faces darker days of uncertainty.
Coronavirus outbreaks and fatality rates are breaking records after the county reported three straight days of increased Covid-19 positive tests
Health bosses are already guarding against potential July 4 celebrations by imposing an indefinite ban on indoor dining in restaurants, the closure of beaches, and the shutdown of museums. Los Angeles County was the first to decide to close its shores amid the deeply concerning surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations, several changed their minds.
It is unclear what role the outpouring of residents protesting in May could have had on the frightening rise in cases. Hospitalisations due to Covid-19 have increased by 56% in just two weeks. Concern is mounting that Los Angeles hospitals could run out of intensive care unit hospital beds within weeks if cases continue to rise.
People are very apprehensive of others coming into their space and Los Angelis, like Newyork is slowly losing the magic that has for decades made it a major tourist attraction and destination for holiday makers. Many reasons have been cited as potential explanations for the scary jump in cases in L.A. Congregation of people in the city’s beaches is one of the obvious contributing a
Fun time over in LA beaches Image; Ajay Surev
factors due to the sudden rise in infections and hospitalisations.
Protests
The protests in May that saw residents pour out into the streets over the death of George Floyd is one explanation which on its own struggles to account for the exponential rise in hospitalisation and deaths. Protests occurred across many states, and not all are revealing exceeding numbers of Covid -19 deaths or hospitalisations like the great City of Los Angelis is.
The rising rates of homelessness in the city has also been a potential factor, considering the many deaths noted among the homeless in Los Angelis.
. Neighboring Orange county has seen an increase in deaths of homeless people during the pandemic, though its causes is open to debate. It could be due to Covid 19 or lack of adequate food supply.
Los Angelis has over 60,000 homeless people with many more with rental problems joining them. Homelessness exposes its victims to the virus more as many are forced to improvise making adherence to social distancing rules difficult in the circumstances.
Cigarette Sharing
Sharing of cigarettes and blunts are still common among the thousands of homeless who are resigned to the hopelessness of their fate, reliable sources base in LA told The Eye Of Media.Com. Aimee Caldwell, a 29 year old hairdresser from Los Angelis who was recently homeless said: ”when people are homeless and stressed out, social distancing doesn’t even exist. It’s just a word, a concept people know, but their immediate concern is food, din, and smoke, for those who smoke.
This means people will share plates, forks, cigarettes, whatever to get by. Of they get a lucky chance to stay at someone’s house for a night o two, they will take it, which means they could catch the virus easily and pass it on. The homeless life is unpredictable an brings lots of unpredictability with it”.
Construction And Factory Jobs
Another factor is people who work in construction jobs or factories. Many of these people are prone to catching the virus more than others because of the close proximity to one another in which they work. Compliance with recommendations to wear masks and gloves isn’t always enough as they are constantly touching things even with the gloves they have on.
Many of them also take the masks off from time to time for a breather,allowing enough time for the transfer of deadly pathogens from those who unknowingly have the virus. Gloves also need to be regularly changed, a requirement that is not insisted upon often enough.Touching contaminated surfaces before touching other things shared by colleagues can be the recipe for disaster.
An LA factory where low-wage workers make masks is now suffering a coronavirus outbreak which has not stopped workers from continuing with labour to sustain their livelihoods. Daisy Gonzalez, who is an organiser with the Garment Worker Center said:
“Workers are going back to work because they need income,” said Daisy Gonzalez, an organiser with the Garment Worker Center, which is assisting infected workers. “These factories are crammed with people.”
On Wednesday, Los Angelis unveiled a colour coded system to help assess and report the risk of the infection. The online indicator, which Mayor Eric Garcetti unveiled Wednesday, is broken into four categories — red, orange, yellow and green — each representing different threat levels.
“Information and data on the threat helps us all inform our behavior, guides us to better days,” Garcetti said.
As of Thursday morning, L.A.’s indicator was orange, meaning that the risk of infection remains very high, according to Garcetti.
“When the indicator is orange, you want to stay at home as often as possible … and only leave for essential activities like going to work or going to the market,” he said. “And you should assume everyone around you is infectious