Coronavirus cases explode in Los Angeles County.
Public health officials are reporting 7,600 new cases, shattering the old record of 6,100 cases set just last week.
"In terms of getting to a point where I would say 'oh my gosh I hope we don't get there,' we are already there," says Anne Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA.
Rimoin says she expects the numbers to keep getting worse. Even if everyone now started following the restrictions intended to prevent the spread of the virus, it would take several weeks to turn things around.
"Like a snowball going downhill getting larger and gaining momentum, it becomes very difficult to stop," Rimoin says.
On Monday, the county's public health director, Barbara Ferrer, said hospitalizations might hit a new high of 2,500 in two weeks. It now looks like that might happen by tomorrow, Wednesday.
"We're just at this critical point in the pandemic. Everything that we do right now could have life or death consequences, if not, for ourselves, for our loved ones, for someone in the community," Rimoin says.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 408,000 county residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 7,700 have died.
