Los Angeles, Jan 3 (IANS): Los Angeles County, the most populous in the US with more than 10 million residents, has hit a grim milestone of 800,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases in total.

The county's Department of Public Health reported 15,701 new cases and 138 fatalities in a on Saturday, which increased the overall infection tally to 806,210, while the death toll surged to 10,682, reports Xinhua news agency.

Meanwhile, 7,627 patients are currently hospitalised in the county, the Department said.

Local public health officials said that coronavirus cases in the county have doubled in over a month, noting that it was the fastest acceleration than at any other time during the pandemic.

Officials urged local residents to stay home as much as possible to protect themselves and others.

"The strategy for stopping the surge is fairly straightforward. When people stay away from other people, the virus cannot spread as it is doing now," the county's Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer saidin a statement.

"While health officer orders create the framework for protecting each other, it is our actions that stop people from being hospitalised and dying.

"When we follow the public health safety directives with intention, we avoid getting and transmitting Covid-19," she added.