L.A. County Sees High Number of New COVID-19 Cases; Hospitalizations Slightly Increase

Public Health Reports 22 New Deaths and 1,843 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 22 new deaths and 1,843 new cases of COVID-19. Today’s number of new cases surpasses the high daily numbers seen in the last two weeks and is the highest number of new cases not associated with backlog cases reported since late-August. To date, Public Health identified 313,562 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,117 deaths.

There are 817 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 29% of these people are in the ICU. Today’s number of people hospitalized is a slight increase from daily counts in late September and early October and is the first time the daily number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 has exceeded 800 since mid-September. And while this is still significantly lower than the peak of over 2,200 daily hospitalizations in mid-July, the increase in hospitalizations is most likely associated with the continued increase in cases over the past two weeks.

Public Health will continue to monitor the number of people hospitalized closely because it represents how many people are currently seriously ill from the virus and the potential demand put on our hospitals to care for COVID-19 patients.

Our daily case numbers continue to keep the County in the State’s most restrictive purple tier (Tier 1) in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Currently, L.A. County’s adjusted case rate is 7.5 new cases per 100,000 people. This is a decrease from the 8.0 adjusted case rate reported last week. The County must reduce its daily number of new cases to 7 or fewer new cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks in order to move to the next less restrictive Tier 2.

The County’s overall test positivity rate is 4.0% which meets the threshold for Tier 3 and the test positivity rate in our lowest-resourced areas increased from 6.2% to 6.8% which still meets the threshold for Tier 2.

“To the many people mourning loved ones and friends who have passed away from COVID-19, we send you our heartfelt condolences,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “I thank all of our businesses, schools and residents who continue to make COVID-19 safety measures part of their daily routine. Unfortunately, the continued significant increase in cases reflects many instances where basic prevention measures were lacking.  Unless we can all get back to protecting each other, our recovery will stall.”

Public Health, along with the Los Angeles County Office of Education, will host a virtual Los Angeles County Parent Town Hall Event on COVID-19 and Schools on Monday, November 9, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  The discussion will include steps taken to protect children returning back to school, the reopening process, school waivers, and include a live Q&A with parents. For additional information, view here.

Schools throughout the County have reopened for specialized services for students with high-needs, waiver programs for students in grades TK-2, childcare, and modified youth sports programs.

As of November 2, Public Health has received 210 applications from schools for waivers to open for grades TK-2 in-person learning; 134 applications from private schools, 71 applications from public schools, and five applications from charter schools. To date, waiver approvals have been issued to 29 schools.  An additional 45 schools have been submitted to the State for final approval. For more information, visit: www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

In addition, 1,463 schools have opted to offer in-person learning for high-need students; 73% are public schools, 16% are charter schools, and 11% are private schools. More than 65,000 students and more than 28,000 staff have returned for on-site learning. A list of schools open for K-12 specialized services is available online.

Of the 22 new deaths reported today, eight people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, seven 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, one person who died was between the ages of 30 and 49 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. Fifteen people who died had underlying health conditions including seven people over the age of 80, five people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, two people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person between the ages of 18 and 29 years old.

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 6,707 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. Upon further investigation, 62 cases and two deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

Testing results are available for nearly 3,182,000 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.