Public Health Continues to See a Decline in New Cases

51 New Deaths and 989 New Positive Cases of Confirmed COVID-19 In Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 51 new deaths and 989 new cases of confirmed COVID-19. This is the first time the number of reported new cases has been under 1,000 since the beginning of June.  In mid to late July, the daily reported number of new cases was around 3,200 cases per day.

To date, Public Health identified 233,777 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 5,605 deaths.

The state is monitoring all counties on six indicators to determine their progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19. These indicators include testing capacity, how much transmission of the virus is happening in the community, how many people are currently hospitalized for COVID-19, and the capacity of hospitals to care for people with COVID-19 with adequate numbers of available Intensive Care Unit beds and ventilators. LA County is meeting five of the state’s six indicators, only missing the mark on the threshold of having less than 100 cases per 100,000 residents. As of today, August 25, the case rate per 100,000 people is 196 cases per 100,000 residents.

The Governor allowed local health officers the discretion to grant waivers to school districts and private schools that would permit schools to reopen for in-classroom instruction for students in grades TK through grade 6 once case rates were under 200 per 100,000 people.

It is too early to tell if the County’s 14-day case rate will remain below 200, especially given cases reported on Monday and Tuesday are typically lower than other days of the week. Public Health will continue to monitor the case rate reported by the State.

Public Health is working to assess the new guidance issued today by the State to determine what additional adjustments may be needed before opening up the waiver process.

“I send my heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost loved ones to COVID-19,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Last week, we mentioned that we were showing progress on meeting the state’s benchmarks for getting off the watch list, and we are grateful for everyone’s sacrifices that have resulted in slowing the spread.  Because of the lessons we learned from our explosion of cases in July, I need to ask that we continue to significantly modify our actions if we want to keep community transmission rates low. “

Of the 51 new deaths reported today, 19 people that passed away (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena) were over the age of 80 years old, 13 people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, nine people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, two people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. Thirty-seven people had underlying health conditions including 13 people over the age of 80 years old, 14 people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, eight people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and two people between the ages of 30 and 49 years old.

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 5,277 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 50% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 24% 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, 105 cases and four deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

There are 1,200 confirmed cases currently hospitalized and 32% of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU.

Testing results are available for nearly 2,207,000 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive.

Public Health has a dedicated call line for any person with a positive lab result. If you are positive for COVID-19 and have not yet connected with a public health specialist, the department urges you to call 1-833-540-0473 to connect with a public health specialist who can provide information about services and support. Residents who do not have COVID-19 should continue to call 211 for resources or more information.

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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