Public Health Reports 58 New Deaths and 1,642 New Cases of Confirmed COVID-19 In Los Angeles County

School Waiver Process Not Opening at this Time

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 58 new deaths and 1,642 new cases of confirmed COVID-19. To date, Public Health identified 235,386 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 5,663 deaths.

The state is monitoring all counties to determine their progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19. L.A. County must stay below 100 cases per 100,000 people 14-day case rate thresholds for three consecutive days to be removed from the state’s COVID-19 county monitoring list.

Today, the 14-day case rate per 100,000 people for L.A. County is 198 cases per 100,000 residents, and we are grateful to see this number come down.  We need to continuing taking all the steps we have these past weeks so that community transmission rates are low enough for us to continue our recovery journey.

At this point, the school waiver process will not be reopening for applications.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to everyone who has lost a loved one or friend to COVID-19,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “A very important part of our recovery is getting our children back to schools. Yesterday, the state released new guidance about newly permitted activities at all schools across the state to help students at high risk and high need.  We will be closely reviewing the new guidance from the state and will be working with the Board to ensure that our Health Officer Orders are adjusted to ensure that when schools open for any new activities, they do so with as much safely as possible for all children and staff. Given the need to review the implications of the new state guidance on school re-opening plans, at this point, we are not ready to open up our waiver process for schools.”

Information regarding confirmed cases of COVID-19 among pregnant women is collected. To date, 1,200 pregnant women have tested positive for the virus and 79% of these women were symptomatic. Tragically, two women who were pregnant passed away from COVID-19. Among the 193 infants that were tested for COVID-19 at birth, eight tested positive for the virus and 185 tested negative.

Public Health encourages pregnant women and new mothers to take extra care to avoid being infected.  Expecting and new moms should stay home as much as possible.  If you must go out, wear a cloth face covering,  keep physical distance from anyone who is not from your household, and wash hands frequently.  If you are sick or positive for COVID-19 and breastfeeding, wear a mask while breastfeeding or bottle feeding, and be sure to wash your hands before touching the baby or any pump or bottle before using. If possible, ask someone else to feed the baby your breastmilk by bottle.  More detailed guidance for expecting and new moms can be found online.

Public Health continues to survey skilled nursing facilities in the County on their compliance with mandated COVID-19 testing and on COVID-19 cases and outbreaks. All 341 skilled nursing facilities responded and provided information about testing and new cases for the week of August 9. From August 9 through August 15, testing was completed for 12,793 nursing home residents and for 21,581 staff. Out of the 341 facilities, 190 were classified as having an outbreak, and of these skilled nursing facilities 123 did not report any additional cases. One hundred and fifty-one facilities were classified as not having an outbreak, and 130 of these did not report any positive test results from this round of testing. The 21 skilled nursing facilities that reported one or more positive cases are required to test all their residents and staff to control any outbreak.

Public health also continues tracking the number of positive cases and deaths among healthcare workers related to the COVID-19 pandemic response. There have been a total 83 deaths and a total of positive 13,626 cases among healthcare workers and first responders in Los Angeles County. Nurses continue to account for the majority of deaths among healthcare workers at 42%. Skilled nursing and assisted living facilities account for one-third of the healthcare workers who have tested positive for the virus and hospitals account for 26%.

Of the 58 new deaths reported today, 24 people that passed away (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena) were over the age of 80 years old, 15 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 and five people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Forty-three people had underlying health conditions including 20 people over the age of 80 years old, 13 people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, five people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and five people between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Five deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach.

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 5,330 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.

There are 1,186 confirmed cases currently hospitalized and 32% of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU.  The number of daily hospitalizations continues to decrease.  Daily hospitalizations peaked to 2,200 patients in mid-July.

Testing results are available for nearly 2,221,000 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive.  Upon further investigation, 33 cases reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

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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