(NewsNation Now) — Los Angeles County hit more than one million confirmed coronavirus cases this weekend as California continues to be ravaged by the virus.
The nation’s most populous county exceeded one million Saturday according to data Johns Hopkins University, the highest total for any county nationwide. Cook County in Illinois reported more than 430,000 overall confirmed cases and Maricopa County in Arizona reported more than 410,000 confirmed cases.
Los Angeles County has reported more than 13,000 deaths with the county still under the state’s enforced hospital surge order.
This comes as the first case of the variant of COVID-19 initially detected in the United Kingdom was reported in the county Saturday.
“The presence of the U.K. variant in Los Angeles County is troubling, as our healthcare system is already severely strained with more than 7,500 people currently hospitalized,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the county’s Department of Public Health.
Other cases of variant B.1.1.7 have been reported in Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Connecticut, and Florida among others.
Earlier in the month, the Los Angeles County Emergency Services Agency issued directives, instructing paramedics to stop transporting patients if they have virtually no chance of surviving, including those whose hearts and breathing have stopped and who couldn’t be resuscitated.
Overall California had reported more than 2.95 million confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 21,000 people currently hospitalized across the state according to the COVID Tracking Project. The state Saturday reported 669 COVID-19 deaths, the second-highest daily death count.