California has dodged the Worst of COVID, so far

A couple of weeks ago I indicated if any place had to worry about COVID it was California. That fortunately hasn't materialized, but storm clouds are appearing on the horizon. Hospitalizations have recently sharply increased in Imperial County where there are reported to be 2 ICU beds available for its population of over 180,000.

Last year, the rise in the pandemic's severity in Imperial County preceded that of Los Angeles by a few weeks. Meanwhile the number of available ICU beds in Los Angeles has been mostly unchanged over the past few weeks.

As of today, 556 ICU beds are reported to be available. This is fewer than were available for most of the summer (~650) but more than were available at the pandemic's peak in January (236).