Culver City Observer -

Experiencing the same dramatic surge in the rate of infection as Los Angeles County, Culver City recorded 181 cases of coronavirus and 8 deaths in the past week, the County Department of Health has reported.

As of press time, the number of Culver City residents with Covid-19 has spiked to 1601 cases, a 210% increase in the past 7 weeks. Coronavirus-related deaths also rose by 105% over the same period – from 26 reported in November to 53 yesterday, according to Public Health.

Yesterday, the state reported another 35,930 new cases of the virus and the deaths of 552 Californians – marking the sixth time in January that fatalities topped 500 in one day.

County-wide, the total infected with coronavirus stands at 958,497 with 12,955 deaths. On Wednesday, Public Health reported 281 new deaths and 14,564 new cases of Covid-19.

There are 7,949 people with Covid-19 currently hospitalized in the county and 22% of them are in the ICU.

"We are tragically losing more than 1,300 people a week to this disease," said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. "These are not normal times, so we can't go out and act as if nothing is going on. This is an invisible virus that is not going away soon. If everyone stays home as much as possible, wears a mask wherever you are at work, while taking a walk, you can save a life. If you maintain a distance from everyone, you can save a life. If you wash your hands all the time, you can save a life."

Public Health officials said Los Angeles County has seen outbreaks at grocery stores, warehouses and manufacturing facilities as well as in schools and daycare settings.

Testing results are available for more than 5,077,000 individuals with 18% of people testing positive. Over the past 7 weeks, the test positivity rate has increased 5-fold, from around 3.5% to just over 22 % yesterday.

The rate of infection in Culver City stands at 4016 per 100,000 population. But it's still lower than the levels at some neighboring cities, including Beverly Hills at 5692, Inglewood at 8971 and the City of Los Angeles 9554.