The Los Angeles Post

L.A. County Sees Highest Number of New Cases Since Late-August

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Public Health Reports 19 New Deaths and 1,745 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 19 new deaths and 1,745 new cases of COVID-19. This is the highest number of new cases reported since late-August not associated with backlog cases.

To date, Public Health identified 305,070 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,044 deaths. Upon further investigation, 44 cases and 15 deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

There are 750 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 31% of these people are in the ICU. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has remained stable for most of September and October.

Schools have reopened for specialized services for students with high-needs, waiver programs for students in grades TK-2, childcare, and modified youth sports programs. They are required to follow school re-opening protocols for infection control, distancing, and cohorting to minimize COVID-19 spread.  Additionally, Public Health has a dedicated team of specialists providing technical assistance and disease management to all schools that are re-opened or re-opening, and every school that re-opens receives a site visit from Public Health.

Parents play a vital part in the shared responsibility to prevent COVID-19 spread in schools and communities.  To date, nearly 30,000 COVID-19 cases have occurred in children under 18 years old in L.A. County.  If a child’s school has reopened for one of the approved purposes, the decision to send a child back to school rests with each family.  It is essential for families to follow the Department of Public Health’s safety guidance to reduce the risk of getting and spreading COVID-19. The necessary steps include:

  • Keeping your child at home if she or he is sick and or has any symptoms of COVID-19, or if your child has been in contact with someone with COVID-19; symptoms to look out for in your child are fever, new onset of cough, diarrhea/vomiting/abdominal pain, and new onset of severe headache;
  • Instructing your child to always wear a mask while at school and when in public outside of your home;
  • Developing good hand hygiene habits so that your child frequently washes their hands, particularly before eating and after toileting;
  • Teaching your child to stay 6 feet apart from others who aren’t in your household.

There are also actions that parents can take to increase their child’s safety at school:

  • Find out if your child’s school does a symptom screening daily before children and staff enter school; they should be requiring this step for the entire school community.
  • Ask your child about their experience at school regarding distance between students, mask-wearing, and hand washing.
  • Model the behaviors you wish to see your child demonstrate when they go to school; these behaviors include wearing a face covering when outside the home, physical distancing, and hand washing.
  • Ask the school to share its safety protocols and other plans for how it will handle cases and exposure that might occur at the school and ask how the school will communicate with parents if that happens.
  • Be part of school efforts that promote compliance with safety directives.

“To everyone who is facing the sorrow of losing a loved one to COVID-19, our hearts go out to all of you,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “The high numbers of daily cases are very concerning because, as we have seen in the past, increases in cases lead to increases in hospitalizations and deaths.  These increases impede our ability to move forward with re-opening additional sectors and getting more children back to school. As individuals, we get to choose whether to party or help our economy recover; we get to choose whether to protect others from our respiratory droplets or infect others who may go on to need hospital care or even die.  What we don’t get to do, is sit on the sidelines. We have an awesome opportunity to slow the spread with every decision we make about how we interact with others.”

Of the 19 new deaths reported today, five people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, eight people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, two 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. Thirteen people who died had underlying health conditions including five people over the age of 80, six people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, one person between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person between the ages of 30 and 49 years old.   Three deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach.

Ninety-three 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 6,635 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 52% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 23% among White residents, 14% 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.

Testing results are available for nearly 3,080,000 individuals with 9% of all people testing positive.

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.