'Give L.A. What We Need': Garcetti Begs As Hospitalizations Soar

LOS ANGELES, CA — Mayor Eric Garcetti again painted a dismal picture of the coronavirus pandemic in Los Angeles on Thursday, as the amount of hospitalizations across the county reached another record high. The county Department of Public Health announced 8,098 people infected with coronavirus are currently in the hospital, with 20% of those patients in the ICU.

LADPH also reported another 218 coronavirus-related deaths, making the third consecutive day the number has topped 200 and raising the cumulative death toll to 11,545. The county also announced 19,719 new coronavirus cases, lifting the countywide total to 871,404.

As Los Angeles continues to set devastating records, Mayor Garcetti said the city wasn't receiving enough outside assistance to deal with the biggest surge to date.

"Give Los Angeles what we need," Garcetti pleaded. "Just as we sent doctors to New York and PPE to other parts of the country early on when they were peaking, this is our peak. And we need you. We need national leadership, we need vaccines, and we need resources to pay for them."

Although the number of new patients and cases has somewhat leveled off in the past few weeks, officials from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautioned they expect the numbers to swell yet again in the coming weeks as the post-holiday surge sets in.

"If that transmission did increase over Christmas and New Year's, we'll start to see those hospitalizations and case counts rise, and that (transmission rate) is really actually much higher," County Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly said Wednesday. "And that flattening of the number of the new hospitalizations really should not be interpreted that transmission and spread is stopping."

The rising number of deaths has led to issues at some hospitals, which were running out of space to store bodies as overrun funeral homes were unable to accept them. A California National Guard team was previously dispatched to the county coroner's office to assist with the management of the increasing deaths.

In a statement Thursday, the Governor's Office of Emergency Services said a temporary morgue will be erected in the parking lot adjacent to the county coroner's building. The facility will include at least five 53-foot trailers supplied by the state, and five more supplied by the county, along with an unknown number of "ground refrigerated storage containers."

"It is important to know that there is a plan, it is under way, and it is active today," OES Director Mark Ghilarducci said. "We will continue to work at that with each of our 58 counties to ensure that all of these folks are taken care of in the most respectful manner."

The news comes days after the FDA released a statement warning of potential false negatives from Curative's oral coronavirus test, which is widely used as the standard in county-run test sites. The FDA also said the potential for false negatives was higher if tests were administered incorrectly, meaning tests should not be self-administered, as they are at all of the county's drive-up testing locations.

"To reduce the risk of false negative results, it is important to perform the test in accordance with its authorization and as described in the authorized labeling, e.g., the Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers," the FDA wrote in a release. "When the test is not performed in accordance with its authorization or as described in the authorized labeling, there is a greater risk that the results of the test may not be accurate. "

Garcetti continued to stand behind the Curative test on Thursday, pointing to the 92,000 asymptomatic cases the Curative test has uncovered thus far in the pandemic. The mayor also claimed the city didn't have the manpower for trained health care workers to administer each test, mentioning most of the city's doctors and nurses are handling an overwhelming number of patients at hospitals.

"I would love for the FDA to give us clinicians," Garcetti said. "But this has been one of the problems. The federal government has basically told cities 'you're on your own,' and we know that most doctors and nurses are on the frontline fighting COVID-19. To be clear, there are trained health professionals — paramedic-firefighters — on every site, although they're not the ones reaching into cars to tell people how to do it."

San Dimas-based Curative also released a statement in defense of its test.

"Curative's test has been validated and is being offered during the pandemic under an Emergency Use Authorization, and is labeled with specific warnings, precautions and limitations that FDA reiterated in the safety communication," the company said. "The test performance and labeling, however, have not changed, nor has the company observed any changes in test performance. We have been working with the agency to address their concerns and these limitations, and we will continue to work interactively with FDA through the Emergency Use Authorization."

City News Service contributed to this report.