On Christmas Eve, 148 people in LA County died of COVID, says supervisor Hilda Solis. We're averaging a death every 10 minutes.

"These are figures that can’t be normalized," she said. "Just like the sound of ambulance sirens, we can’t tune this out."

Solis sounds really worked up and says that people have been ignoring the orders and recommendations from officials for weeks and that has led to more than 6,900 people in the hospital in LA County with COVID. She warns that traveling last week could make things even worse.

She says that the county will be taking a hard look at retail stores and the rules surrounding them. They're currently open at 20% capacity but Solis says many have not been following the rules.

"It has been hard to find joy this holiday season," says LA County health department director Barbara Ferrer. "The sad reality is that all indicators tell us that our situation may only get worse as we begin 2021."

This is the most desperate, pleading and dejected sounding I have heard Ferrer and the other LA officials in a long time, if ever before. We're in the midst of a giant surge, and another one is coming

Ferrer warns that precautions taken before recent traveling were likely not enough to prevent new infections, like during Thanksgiving.

"All it takes is one unfortunate encounter with an individual with covid-19 for you to become infected."

LA County is reporting 13,661 new cases of the coronavirus today.

The county's cumulative COVID death toll is also close to 10,000, "the saddest milestone of all," Ferrer says.

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There are 54 available ICU beds in LA County -- half are for adults and half are for pediatric patients, officials say.

Officials describe a frightening scene at LA hospitals: With no available beds, multiple ambulances are parking outside hospitals and doctors are treating the patients inside the ambulance. Patients are also being treated in conference rooms and gift shops at hospitals.

Yesterday, 94% of the county's hospitals that receive 911 calls were unable to take any patients at some point during the day and had to direct ambulances elsewhere. "Many hospitals have reached a crisis point," says LA County's Dr. Christina Ghaly.

"The most concerning part of what we’re facing is that as sad as it is, the worst is almost certainly yet to come," Ghaly says. She says that holiday travel and record numbers at LAX do not bode well for the county.

Ghaly: "It’s one thing to have a surge when staff are well, when they’re rested ... It’s a very, very different ... situation when the staff are exhausted, they’re stretched thin and they are already caring for more patients they can handle."

A bleak prediction: "You and your loved ones are not invincible, you can get covid, you can get in a car accident," says Ghaly.

And if the surge continues or even worsens, when that happens, Ghaly says, "hospitals across the county may not be able to help you."

Ferrer says there's a high likelihood that the UK variant is in LA, but that it's unlikely that it's the dominant strain circulating here. The county's lab has tested 29 samples from people who have COVID here and it didn't show up so far, but it could as more samples are tested.

She says the new strain is here or not, the urgency is the same. The recommendations for staying safe and stopping spread are the same.