Los Angeles, Mar 15 (IANS): The city of Lynwood and nine others in Los Angeles County held a memorial event to commemorate the lives lost to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lynwood Mayor Marisela Santana led the event joined by Huntington Park, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Montebello, Paramount, Hawaiian Gardens, Bell, Cudahy, and South Gate on Saturday evening, reports Xinhua news agency.

During the memorial service, lists of the names of loved ones, family members, friends and colleagues who died of Covid-19, submitted by the local residents, were read out.

Solar torches, one for each member of the community who died due to the pandemic, were lit at the end of the ceremony to commemorate their lives.

"The hard truth about Covid-19 is that it has hit our city and our neighbours very hard," said Mayor Santana in a statement.

"Per capita, more people have died in the southeast region than anywhere else in L.A. County. These memorials on Saturday remind all of us not only of those whom we have lost but also will draw attention to the fact we need more vaccination sites in the region."

The local communities in the southeast region are composed of predominately working-class Black and Latino residents and lower-wage, frontline workers often living in overcrowded households housing multiple generations of family members.

Overcrowding that does not allow safe social distancing is a significant contributing factor to enable Covid-19 to hit southeast Los Angeles cities harder, which resulted in 50 per cent higher death rate in Lynwood in particular than other more well-off, less crowded Los Angeles communities.