(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) Los Angeles County becomes the first county in the United States with cases exceeding one million
China News Agency, San Francisco, January 16, US media reported that Los Angeles County, California, became the first county in the United States to have more than 1 million confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia on the 16th local time.
National Broadcasting Corporation reported that as of the 16th, Los Angeles County has reported a total of 1,003,923 confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia and 13,741 deaths.
A few days ago, local public health officials warned that the actual number of people infected with the new crown virus in the county might be much higher than the reported number.
Officials said that since the outbreak, one-third of residents in the county may have been infected by the new crown virus.
Los Angeles County also reported the first case of mutated new coronavirus that day. The mutated strain is the same as the mutated strain found in the UK.
The man infected by the mutant virus had spent some time in Los Angeles and is currently in isolation in Oregon.
Officials believe that the mutant virus has spread in communities in Los Angeles County.
The Los Angeles Times cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as saying that the mutant virus has been found in San Diego and San Bernardino counties in California and 14 other states.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report on the 15th that by March this year, the mutant virus may become the main strain spreading in the United States.
Barbara Ferrell, the head of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said in a statement: "The emergence of the mutant virus is disturbing. Our medical system is already very strained. More than 7,500 people have been hospitalized. Our community is Suffering from the peak of the winter epidemic, the number of confirmed cases, hospitalized cases and deaths was five times that of the summer.” Ferrer had previously said that if the current winter epidemic continues to worsen, officials will consider further tightening of epidemic prevention policies.
Los Angeles County public health officials said that as of the 14th, the county had provided about 279,000 doses of vaccines to medical staff, and another 450,000 medical staff needed to be vaccinated.
Ferrer said in a statement: "We very much hope that the vaccine dose will be increased enough for the elderly to start vaccination before the end of the month. It will take several months to reach the level of vaccination that can curb the spread of the virus."
Statistics from the New York Times show that as of the evening of the 16th, California has reported more than 2.95 million confirmed cases, and the number of confirmed cases in Texas has exceeded 2.11 million.
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