Data from the Los Angeles County and Orange County Public Health Departments shows that COVID 19 numbers have significantly declined in the Whittier Area.
Of significance, the data shows that former COVID 19 epicenter Pico Rivera has experienced a sharp drop. Throughout the year it the city had massive numbers of deaths and COVID 19 was spreading in the city by the hundreds but as of this weekend, Pico Rivera had 0 deaths for the first time since COVID 19 arrived in Pico Rivera. The number of new cases in the city dropped from the daily average of 200 a day in past weeks to just 4 this weekend. That's is a massive drop in both new cases and COVID 19 related deaths.
The City of Whittier had 1 COVID 19 death while the unincorporated community of South Whittier had 2. The City of Whittier had 14 new cases yesterday while South Whittier added 15. That means that both remain epicenters for COVID 19 at this time.
South Whittier's spread rate was the highest yesterday. In the meantime many other communities' spread rates actually dropped to zero. This includes former COVID 19 epicenter La Mirada whose spread rate dropped to zero today. Other communities in the Whittier Area where the spread rate has dropped to zero were Sunrise Village near Rose Hills, La Habra Heights, East La Mirada, and Pellesier Village.
Outside the Whittier Area only Downey and Norwalk continued to have spread rates higher than 10 in raw numbers. None had a spread rate above half a percent. None of the communities bodering the Whittier Area had any new deaths yesterday.
Pico Rivera was not able to keep its people at home as well as its neighbors have been and based on the landmark study out of Sweden showing that the samething happened there, it appears that inability to completely isolate people from the virus may have been a major contributing factor to the COVID 19 spread and death rates dropping much more quickly in Pico Rivera than in other communities. This is very significant because Pico Rivera has more Hispanic residents than any other community in the Whittier Area and indicates that COVID 19 may be receding among that population group.
While over close 2,500 people in Pico Rivera have gotten COVID 19 over the last year, most survived despite the city having had the highest death rate in the Whittier Area for the last year. The same thing happened in Sweden. In the meantime, those communities that insisted on totally isolating their residents from the virus are seeing deaths and cases go up as they begin to gradually open back up which is also happening in the European countries that also totally isolated their residents from the virus. Mainland Europe is experiencing a third and more severe COVID 19 wave while Sweden is currently facing such a wave and the virus appears to be largely disappearing from Sweden while making a vicious comeback all over continental Europe where stay at home orders were strictly enforced with fines and prison sentences.
In the meantime, the average spread rate for the entire Whittier Area has literally dropped to below zero percent meaning that COVID 19 is for intents and purposes no longer spreading in most Whittier Area communities and in those where it is, the numbers are going down there too.
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