LA County Pays Tribute On Twitter To 2020 COVID Victims

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County health officials launched a one-day Twitter campaign Thursday to and pay tribute to those who lost their lives due to coronavirus.

"We want to highlight the devastating impact of COVID-19 on our community; more than 10,000 people passing away this year, and all were loved by and loved others," the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced.

The department launched the "#Every10Minutes" campaign at midnight Wednesday, and sent a new tweet every 10 minutes until midnight Thursday, with a brief description of someone who died in the county this year from COVID-19.

A sample of the tweets:

-- "The old-time surfer who always talked about that one wave he rode."

-- "The nurse who handed out lollipops - even to the adults."

-- "The big rig driver who always honked the horn when kids signaled for it."

-- "The football coach that talked about the importance of discipline."

-- "The sanitation worker who waved to all the little boys going through the trash truck phase."

-- "A graduate student with asthma."

-- "The hardware store owner who opened back up even though he closed 5 minutes ago."

-- "A construction worker with 4 daughters and their first grandchild on the way."

-- "A school security guard that kept kids on the right path."

-- "The corner store owner that let you pay later if you were short a few bucks."

-- "The Lakers fan who told stories about seeing Magic and Kareem at the Forum."

-- "A graduate."

-- "A new dad."

-- "A caretaker."

-- "A wife."

As of the end of 2020, Los Angeles County had identified 770,602 positive cases of COVID-19 and 10,345 fatalities. Those numbers do not include Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)