When the autumn COVID-19 surge erupted more than a month ago, the epicenter was once again Los Angeles County, where the large population of essential workers and others living in densely populated neighborhoods made the region particularly vulnerable to the rapid spread of infections.
But now, Southern California’s more suburban counties are rapidly catching up, fueled by Thanksgiving gatherings that have pushed coronavirus cases and hospitalizations to unprecedented levels and left hospital intensive care units at critical levels.
The numbers of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties have all doubled since the week of Thanksgiving, according to a Times analysis.
The suburban counties are also tallying record levels of new daily infections — all substantially worse than the summer surge, and in many cases, at a rate of increase worse than L.A. County. While L.A. County has seen its latest average daily number of cases nearly triple from its summer peak, counties in even worse shape relative to their summer highs include Ventura, San Bernardino and San Diego counties.
Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News 