Los Angeles

1 Person Dies Every 6 Minutes: How L.A. Became the Nation's Largest Coronavirus Hot Spot

"Once you get behind the eight ball, it's hard to put the genie back in the bottle,” one epidemiologist said

Nurses wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) attend to patients in a Covid-19 intensive care unit
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

In Los Angeles County, 10 people on average test positive for the coronavirus every minute. Every six minutes, someone dies from Covid-19, according to county public health data.

The startling figures come as California’s most populous county rapidly approaches 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the pandemic started last year.

According to county public health officials, more than 958,400 people in L.A. have been infected with the virus and nearly 13,000 people have died as of Wednesday. The numbers are equally sobering across the state. California has nearly 2.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 31,000 deaths as of Wednesday, according to NBC News counts. A more contagious variant of the virus has also been detected in the region.

Epidemiologists and elected officials are confronted with an uncomfortable question as L.A.’s Covid-19 crisis metastasizes: How did Los Angeles become the center of the pandemic?

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

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