L.A. County Exceeds 500,000 COVID-19 Cases and Continues to Break All-Time Records; 50 New Deaths and 13,815 New Positive Cases of Confirmed COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

Please Stay Home and Follow the Safety Guidance

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has reported more than 500,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County. We have reported 100,000 new cases since November 30, when L.A County reached 400,000 COVID-19 cases.

To date, Public Health identified 501,635 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 8,199 deaths.  Upon further investigation, 97 cases reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

Today, Public Health has confirmed 50 new deaths and 13,815 new cases of COVID-19. Today’s number of new cases surpassed yesterday’s high of 12,819 new COVID-19 cases. This is the third time within the last six days daily new cases were over 10,000.

There are 3,624 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 23% of these people are in the ICU.  The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to exceed all-time highs every day since December 1 and has increased nearly every day since November 1.  The number of people hospitalized has increased twofold in just 15 days.

The impact of the Thanksgiving surge of cases on top of already rising cases is creating extraordinary stress on our healthcare system. When we see increases in cases, we see increases in hospitalizations about two weeks later.

In two weeks, there could be over 7,300 daily hospitalizations for COVID-19, and over 1,600 patients in the ICU. This is alarming given that there are only 2,100 adult ICU beds across County hospitals and many of these beds are essential for patients that need intensive care for other illness including trauma, cardiac surgeries, serious infections, and cancer treatments.

“These numbers are overwhelming.  The grief that our community continues to experience cannot be comprehended, and my deepest sympathies go out to everyone who is mourning,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “We cannot undo what has already been done and collectively, we are going to pay a very high price for the actions we took in the past. What we can do and what everyone across the county needs to do right now is to stay at home as much as possible, and limit going out to what is essential: work, school, childcare, exercise and obtaining necessary goods and services.  The best way to protect our essential workers, including healthcare workers, who have to serve and be with others, is to always follow the rules when you are with or around those not in your family:  we need everyone to wear a face covering and keep physical distance from anyone they do not live with. Make the choice today and every day through December that you will protect yourself, you will protect your friends and loved ones, and you will protect the friends and loved ones of other people. Our actions prevent terrible suffering and save lives.”

Testing results are available for more than 4,060,000 individuals with 12% of all people testing positive. Today’s daily test positivity rate is 14.4%.

Of the 50 new deaths reported today, 18 people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, 18 people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, 10 people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and two people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Forty-one people who died had underlying health conditions including 15 people over the age of 80 years old, 16 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. Two 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 7,746 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, 9% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.

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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