The latest numbers show four more deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Imperial County.

The County Health Department numbers show that there have been 371 deaths from the virus as of Thursday morning. The number of active coronavirus cases went from 1,659 on Wednesday to 1,755 on Thursday. The county numbers show that 32 COVID patients are in local Intensive Care Units and there are 55 ventilators in use. According to El Centro Regional Medical Center they have an in=patient census of 152 and 93 of those individuals are COVID positive. The El Centro hospital has a total of 161 licensed beds normally but , as of Wednesday , they have opened up an additional 50 beds in a temporary medical / surgical tent in the north parking lot of the campus. The surge following the Thanksgiving holiday continues to strain local health care facilities and providers with little relief yet and another surge expected with the upcoming Christmas holiday. ICU's throughout all of Southern California are approaching 100 percent capacity.