Top Health Director: 90 Percent of COVID-Positive Patients Weren’t Hospitalized for Virus

Dr. Christina Ghaly, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health, speaks during an LA Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 27, 2022. (Screenshot via The Epoch Times)

The director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) said that about 90 percent of COVID-19-positive patients in DHS hospitals weren’t hospitalized for the virus.

During a Los Angeles Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, Kathryn Ann Barger-Leibrich, serving as a Republican member of the board, asked, “What percentage were admitted for COVID, and what percentage were admitted and then tested positive for COVID?”

“For the four DHS hospitals where we do the manual chart reviews ... 10 percent are admitted to the hospital for COVID, and 90 percent are there for incidental findings,” Dr. Christina Ghaly, the DHS director, said in response to the question from Barger-Leibrich.

“But they’re primarily there for another reason,” she remarked.

Ghaly was presenting data on the number of inpatients at the four DHS hospitals over the past 180 days ending in mid-September 2022. It showed there was an overall decline in the total number of inpatients with a positive COVID-19 test, noting that PCR tests appear to have given false positives for months.

“We do test everyone on admission to the hospital for COVID. We used a PCR test, and because of that, there’s a lagging positivity given that the PCR test often remains positive for a couple of months. And it will take time for the trendline to decline to the point where it again mirrors the general population,” she said.

Changes

Her comments are consistent with data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which shows that reported COVID-19 cases have continued to drop in recent months. Deaths and hospitalizations have also plunged across the country.

On Sept. 18, President Joe Biden responded to a “60 Minutes” question about the trajectory of COVID-19 in which he replied that the pandemic “is over.” White House officials scrambled to clarify his comments in the subsequent days.

“We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over,” he said in the interview. “If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing.”

The CDC, meanwhile, has continued to remove various COVID-19 restrictions and is revising its guidance around the virus. On Sept. 23, the agency said that hospitals, health care facilities, and nursing homes have the option to longer require nursing homes and hospitals to no longer require masking in some areas.

“Updates were made to reflect the high levels of vaccine-and infection-induced immunity and the availability of effective treatments and prevention tools,” the CDC said in an update.