Los Angeles could run out of hospital beds in 2–3 weeks amid an 'explosion' of new coronavirus outbreaks

Many Los Angeles residents and businesses aren't following reopening guidelines, and it's becoming a problem, health officials say.

While Los Angeles County has been California's COVID-19 epicenter since the virus first started spreading, its situation was relatively contained in comparison with the East Coast. But new data shows that fate is changing, with Los Angeles County's Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer warning of "alarming increases in cases, positivity rates, and hospitalization," in a Monday press conference.

So far, 98,000 people have tested positive and 3,300 people have died in L.A. County from COVID-19. Those trends have seen an uptick in the last few weeks, with L.A. County’s Director of Health Services Christina Ghaly noting growing hospitalizations is seemingly stemming from an "increase in transmission." L.A. health experts said the transmission rate began spiking over Memorial Day weekend, as businesses reopened and people failed to wear masks and take other measures to keep safe as they returned to normal life, and Ferrer specifically cited an "explosion of new outbreaks in workplaces."

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The skyrocketing transmission rate will soon turn into a skyrocketing hospitalization rate, health leaders said Monday. So for the first time since the coronavirus began to subside in Los Angeles, the county is now predicting it could run out of hospital beds in two to three weeks. ICU beds could also be filled up sometime in July, though hospitals around the world have found ways to increase their capacities throughout the pandemic. Read more at the Los Angeles Times.