LA County crosses 1 million cases, identifies 1st UK variant
Los Angeles County, the hardest hit region in the country right now, announced it has crossed 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.
The county has identified 1,003,923 cases since the start of the pandemic -- the first county in the country to cross the mark. Only four states outside of California have met that ignominious total. The county announced 253 new deaths and 14,669 new cases on Saturday.
There are currently 7,597 people hospitalized in LA County with COVID-19 -- down slightly from days earlier when the total crossed 7,900.
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Also of concern, the county identified its first case of the so-called U.K. variant on Saturday. The case was discovered in a man who was recently in LA, but has since traveled to Oregon, where he is isolating, the health department said.
"The presence of the U.K. variant in Los Angeles County is troubling, as our healthcare system is already severely strained with more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized," said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of public health. "This more contagious variant makes it easier for infections to spread at worksites, at stores, and in our homes."
There had already been 40 cases of the variant, officially called the B.1.1.7 variant, detected in California.