Los Angeles County Announces 58 New Deaths Related to 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

1,638 New Cases of Confirmed COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 58 new deaths and 1,638 new cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Forty-three people who died were over the age of 65 years old, 10 people who died were between the ages of 41 to 65 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 to 40 years old. Forty-five people had underlying health conditions including 38 people over the age of 65 years old and seven people between the ages of 41 to 65 years old. Four deaths were reported by the City of Pasadena.

To date, Public Health has identified 27,815 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 1,313 deaths. Ninety-three percent of people who died had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 1,201 people (99 percent of the cases); 38% of deaths occurred among Latinx residents, 28% among White residents, 19% among Asian residents, 12% among African American residents, 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races. African Americans, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and people living in communities with high levels of poverty continue to have the highest rate of death per 100,000 people for COVID-19 when compared to other groups. Upon further investigation, 40 cases and one death reported earlier were not LA County residents. As of today, 5,081 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (19% of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. Testing capacity continues to increase in LA County, with testing results available for nearly 183,000 individuals and 13% of people testing positive.

“So many families are experiencing the pain of losing a loved one to COVID-19. We are very much with you, and you are in our thoughts and prayers every day,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “While we are all looking forward to businesses reopening and getting back to work, we must also do this safely to save lives and prevent an overwhelming of our healthcare system. Protecting the people who are most vulnerable is paramount through the reopening process.”

As the County of Los Angeles plans on soon reopening some businesses and getting people back to work, Public Health is tracking key measures that inform reopening plans in LA County to ensure it is safe and we still slow the spread of COVID-19. The measures include making sure we have the tools to slow the spread and that we are effective at slowing the spread.

Capacity to Slow the Spread

• Tracking hospital capacity to manage a surge in cases and people with serious illness.
• Tracking sufficient supply of PPE for all health care workers.
• Tracking sufficient testing capacity and testing supplies.
• Tracking adequate capacity to do case and contact tracing.

Effectiveness at Slowing the Spread

• Tracking mortality rates throughout the process of reopening, including by age, poverty level and race and ethnicity.
• Tracking hospitalization rates by age, poverty level, and race/ethnicity.
• Tracking whether people who are at greater risk of serious illness are able to easily access testing.

Public Health continues planning for recovery and relaxing select directives of the Safer at Home Order. As relaxing occurs, businesses and residents will need to continue to observe and practice physical distancing requirements and infection control precautions. Physical distancing, wearing cloth face coverings, frequent hand washing, self-isolation and self-quarantine will continue to be very important throughout the foreseeable future. People who have underlying health conditions will still be at much greater risk for serious illness from COVID-19, so it will continue to be very important for our vulnerable residents to stay at home as much as possible, to have groceries and medicine delivered, and to know to call their providers immediately if they have even mild symptoms.

An interactive dashboard is available that provides an overview on COVID-19 testing, cases and deaths along with maps and graphs showing testing, cases and death data by community poverty level, age, sex and race/ethnicity.  To view Public Health’s COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard, visit: http://dashboard.publichealth.lacounty.gov/covid19_surveillance_dashboard/

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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