LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles, the most populous county in the United States, added 37,215 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, the highest single-day increase since the start of the pandemic, local public health authorities said Thursday.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a daily release that the latest number of daily COVID-19 infections, breaking the previous record of 27,091 set last Friday, is far higher than last winter's peak average of 16,000 cases per day.
Currently, there are 2,661 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in the county, and more than 17 percent of those getting tested are positive for the virus.
Public health officials have detected a total of 1,843,922 positive cases across Los Angeles, home to over 10 million residents, while the death toll rose to 27,728, with 30 new deaths reported on Thursday.
Officials pointed out that those vaccinated and boosted continue to be protected from infections and severe illness, as they were almost four times less likely to get infected and 38 times less likely to be hospitalized than those who were unvaccinated.
"With thousands of newly infected people each day, we recognize the numerous new challenges we are all facing," said Barbara Ferrer, director of the department, in the release.
"Many services are strained, as workers are ill or quarantining, families are facing major disruptions trying to care for those infected or quarantining, and for countless residents, it is hard to get tested and to sort through the changing guidance," Ferrer said, adding that it would take a lot of effort to get through hardship. ■