Los Angeles mayor rebuts Trump and warns the city is 'days away' from fate of New York

Charles Davis 3/24/2020

Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti speaks during a news conference. Thomson Reuters

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city is anywhere from six to twelve days away from the sort of crisis currently facing New York City.

"The premature announcement that we can see that light at the end of the tunnel — I'd say we're just entering that tunnel, right now, and we need to be prepared for some of the darkness that lies ahead," Garcetti said.

Eleven people in Los Angeles County have now died due to COVID-19, including one teenager.

Los Angeles is just a week or two away from the fate of New York City, where hospitals are being overwhelmed with a surge in patients suffering from COVID-19 — and neither it nor the nation is anywhere near ready to return to business as usual, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday night.

"To place the economy before individuals, profits before people — that will cost lives," Garcetti said in a forceful rebuke of President Donald Trump, who suggested social-distancing measures could be rescinded by April 12.

Earlier in the day, President Trump said he would like to see the country "opened up and just raring to go by Easter."

The mayor called that wishful thinking. "I think we owe it to everyone to be straightforward and honest," Garcetti said. Restrictions currently in place, including an order for Los Angeles residents to remain in their homes, could be necessary for "a couple months," not just a couple more days.

"The premature announcement that we can see that light at the end of the tunnel — I'd say we're just entering that tunnel, right now, and we need to be prepared for some of the darkness that lies ahead," Garcetti continued.


On Tuesday, officials in Los Angeles County, home to more than 10 million people, announced that more than 660 residents were now confirmed to be infected with COVID-19. A teenager with the disease died of septic shock, the Los Angeles Times reported, bringing the county's death toll to 11.

The mayor warned that the worst was yet to come. "I did some calculations, and we are anywhere from about six to 12 days behind what we are seeing in New York City." As of Tuesday evening, the virus had resulted in the deaths of 131 NYC residents, The New York Times reported, with the city accounting for 60 percent of new cases, nationally, according Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force.

Garcetti said Los Angeles has neither enough medical supplies nor medical professionals to adequately deal with what's coming. And while praising the Trump administration's invocation of war-time powers to manufacture more testing kits, he said it would be of little use to Los Angeles if those kits were not delivered immediately.

"Now is the time for partnerships, and not for politics," he said. "We can't wish coronavirus away."

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