Los Angeles Covid Cases Up 78% In Past 2 Weeks; Hospitalizations Finally Begin Rising, But Very Slowly

deadline.com:

Throughout the pandemic, a rule of thumb has been that Covid-related hospitalizations tend to rise about two weeks after cases.

It was just about two weeks ago that Los Angeles County saw its first, drastic jump in what had been a slow rise of daily cases, but thankfully no corresponding jump in hospitalizations has materialized.On April 16, the number of daily new cases in the region rose to 1,510 from numbers that had been in the 1,100-1,200 range the week prior.

Since then cases have increased about 78%, to 2,335 today. Given the two-week rule, hospitalizations should be rising apace.But during that same period, daily Covid-related hospitalizations have risen by just 21 patients, from 228 to 249.

That increase is nowhere near the corresponding jumps seen in past surges. The hope is that hospitalizations are “decoupling” from case trends, meaning the two are no longer as causally linked as they were before.The county is only just at the 2-week margin, so the next few days could still see the customary rise, but the fact that there has not yet been a jump is a hopeful sign.Another hopeful indicator is the suspicion that the daily case numbers are vastly undercounting the number of new infections.