Registered nurse Akiko Gordon, left, and respiratory therapist Janssen Redondo tend to a COVID-19 patient inside the ICU at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles on Friday. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)The number of coronavirus-positive patients has spiked dramatically across Southern California since Christmas — but some health officials are noting important differences in how the latest surge is playing out in hospitals compared with last winter’s devastating wave. In Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, the coronavirus-positive patient count has more than doubled in the last nine days. And in L.A. and San Bernardino counties, the daily hospital census has surpassed the peak seen during last summer’s spike. But there are signs that the crunch at a number of Southern California’s hospitals may not be as severe as last year, before vaccines were widely available.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 04, 2022 14:17 UTC