Public Health Reports 30 New Deaths and 990 New Positive Cases of Confirmed COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

Cases Among People Experiencing Homelessness Decline

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 30 new deaths and 990 new cases of confirmed COVID-19. To date, Public Health has identified 275,856 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 6,681 deaths.

Testing results are available for more than 2,737,000 individuals with 9% of all people testing positive.

To date, Public Health has identified 1,846 cases among people experiencing homelessness. The weekly number of new cases among this group has declined significantly.  Cases among people experiencing homelessness peaked the week of July 7 at 138 new cases.  This week, there are 53 new cases among people experiencing homelessness.  This includes 36 cases from previous weeks that were newly identified and were included in the new case totals.

To date, 44 people who were experiencing homelessness and two people who were working in shelters have passed away from COVID-19. Of the people who were experiencing homelessness who passed away, 21 were sheltered, 13 were unsheltered, and for 10 people who passed away, their sheltered status was unknown. There were no new deaths reported among people experiencing homelessness or shelter staff this week.

The number of cases among persons experiencing homelessness has remained below what was predicted during the early stages of the pandemic. This may be, in part, because of the County’s early efforts to offer housing for people experiencing homelessness, including single-room facilities for the most at risk of serious illness, and for those needing to quarantine or isolate.  In addition, robust testing in shelters and a contact tracing approach tailored to people experiencing homelessness may have contributed to lower than expected cases.

Even before the pandemic, multiple studies have documented people experiencing homelessness have a mortality rate from three to eight times higher than those in the general population.  In reviewing L.A. County Coroner’s preliminary data, COVID-19 deaths do not appear to be the main driver of excess mortality among persons experiencing homelessness.  Public Health has seen an increase in drug overdoses among people experiencing homelessness. Drug overdoses accounted for 21% of deaths among persons experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County from 2013-2018.  For the first 6 months of 2020, an estimated 40% of deaths among persons experiencing homelessness have been attributed to overdose.

This underscores the importance of ensuring that people experiencing homelessness are connected to support and interim housing, including access to health and substance use disorder services.

Public Health is preparing a more detailed report on deaths among people experiencing homelessness to be released in the coming month.

“To the families grieving the loss of a loved one to COVID-19, we wish you healing and peace,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “While we have seen significant improvement since the summer, daily case numbers indicate COVID-19 continues to spread across L.A. County at high enough rates to limit the reopening of businesses and schools.  If we work together to limit transmission and slow the spread of COVID-19 to 700 or less new cases per day, not only will the County move to a less restrictive tier that allows us to consider additional re-openings, we will save lives.”

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 7, indoor shopping malls will be allowed to reopen with occupancy limited to 25% capacity, and with all food courts and all common areas closed.  Last week, Public Health released a timeline for reopening nail salons, indoor malls and outdoor cardrooms, outside playgrounds, and the school waiver application program for in-person learning for students in grades TK-2.  Nail salons, outdoor cardrooms and outside playgrounds have been allowed to resume operations with the required modifications in place.  The school waiver program also began accepting applications yesterday.

Of the 30 new deaths reported today, 13 people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, nine people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, five people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Twenty-one people who died had underlying health conditions including 11 people over the age of 80, six people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, and four people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old. Two deaths were reported by the City of Pasadena.

Ninety-two percent of the people who died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 6,290 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 51% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 23% among White residents, 15% among Asian residents, 10% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.  Upon further investigation, 76 cases and two deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

There are 685 confirmed cases currently hospitalized and 29% of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU.

The Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

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