141 New Deaths and 3,434 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 141 new deaths and 3,434 new cases of COVID-19.  To date, Public Health identified 1,155,309 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 18,500 deaths.

As of February 5, the average number of new cases is around 4,500 a day; a 70% decrease from the peak experienced in early-January when Public Health reported an average of over 15,000 cases per day.

There are 3,973 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 29% of these people are in the ICU.  Testing results are available for more than 5,634,000 individuals with 19% of people testing positive. Today’s daily test positivity rate is 7.1%.

Of the 141 new deaths reported today, 48 people who passed away were over the age of 80, 43 people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, 30 people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64, 10 people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49, and three people who died were between the ages of 18 and 29. Five deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach and two deaths were reported by the City of Pasadena.

Although cases may be declining, there remains an alarming gap between Latino/Latinx residents and other groups.  For Latino/Latinx residents, the daily rate of new cases was more than 2,300 per 100,000 people on January 11.  Since then the rate dropped to 856 new cases per 100,000 people, but is still more than two times that of African American/Black residents who have the second highest case rate of 400 new cases per 100,000 per day. Asian residents have a case rate of 319 per 100,000 people and White residents have a case rate of 318 per 100,000 people.

When the surge began in early- November, the average number of Latino/Latinx residents who passed away each day was 3.4 deaths per 100,000 people and then sharply increased to 48 deaths per 100,000 people on January 16; an increase over 1,000%.  Two weeks later, the mortality rate among Latino/Latinx residents has declined to 33 deaths per 100,000 people, yet still remains over twice that of other groups. Since mid-January, the mortality rate among African American/Black residents decreased from nearly 23 deaths per 100,000 people to 14 deaths per 100,000 people. Deaths among Asian residents have declined since the peak, from 19 deaths per 100,000 people to 8 deaths per 100,000 people. The current mortality rate among White residents is also 8 deaths per 100,000 people from the peak of about 16 deaths per 100,000 people. While rates are declining for all groups, White and Asian residents have seen a more significant decline than that experienced by African American/Black and Latino/Latinx residents. The mortality rate for Latino/Latinx residents has declined 31% and 39% for African American/Black residents since the peak.  For Asian residents, the death rate has declined 58%, and for White resident this rate has decline by 50%.

We continue to see a high mortality rate among people living in areas with the highest levels of poverty, with three times the death rate compared to people living in the lowest levels of poverty.

Individuals and families living in the hardest hit communities continue to remain a priority for us as we move forward, including in our efforts to vaccinate our residents.

“Each death we report is a tragedy and we wish everyone who is mourning the loss of a loved one from COVID-19 strength through these difficult times. You have our deepest condolences,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “In these times of vaccine scarcity, we ask that everyone be mindful of waiting for your turn, and ensuring that those most vulnerable in each eligible group have access to the vaccine; this includes older people, frontline workers in these eligible sectors, and eligible residents and workers in the hardest hit communities.  I want to thank everyone who has communicated to us the considerations and concerns they have around vaccine access for the populations they serve; your input is invaluable and is being used to inform the county’s plans for vaccinating more sectors and groups in the near future. We move forward together and with hope.”

Public Health continues working on strategies that improve access to vaccine for people who are older with limited mobility and needing assistance securing appointments. The department is organizing mobile teams to bring vaccinations directly to seniors living in housing developments or accessing senior centers in hardest-hit communities. Community health workers in the highly impacted communities, at times, will go block by block to provide information to residents about how to get vaccinated and dispel myths and misinformation about the vaccine. In addition, the County is working to support neighborhood vaccination sites, and have placed 60 volunteers from various universities at sites to provide assistance with data entry, cold-chain support and licensed clinical vaccinators.

The state announced that in the next several weeks that the vaccination effort statewide will be coordinated by a third-party administrator, Blue Shield of California.  We look forward to working with Blue Shield and the State to ensure that we have an efficient and effective vaccine distribution system that meets the needs of our communities. During and after this transition, Public Health’s website, www.VaccinateLACounty.com  and www.VaccunateLosAngeles.com, will remain a portal for the latest information about COVID-19 and the vaccine and link people to the statewide appointment registration system.

Currently, vaccinations are open to healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities, and people ages 65 and older.  Prioritization of groups to be vaccinated happens at the federal level, and then these recommendations are reviewed and finalized at the state level.  Counties are asked to implement the state’s prioritized tiering.  On January 25, Governor Newsom announced three additional frontline workers should be vaccinated as part of Phase 1B Tier 1:  Education and Childcare workers, Food and Agriculture workers, and Emergency Services workers. With very limited vaccine supply and uncertainty on timing for increased production, a realistic and carefully developed plan for expanding vaccination availability to these additional sectors is being developed.   We plan to start vaccinations for workers in these sectors in 2 to 3 weeks.

As the department finalizes vaccination plans for frontline workers in these sectors, Public Health is consulting with dozens of stakeholders, including community-based organizations, elected officials and city managers, other government agencies, school districts, childcare providers, healthcare and vaccination partners, labor unions, faith-based organizations, representatives of grocery stores and agriculture communities, law enforcement and the courts.

Public Health estimates more than 547,000 people are working in the Food and Agriculture sector and will be eligible for the vaccine, 668,000 people in the childcare and education sector, and 154,000 law enforcement and emergency responders in our County.

Public Health remains acutely aware that the county will continue, for a significant number of weeks ahead, to have a very limited supply of vaccines.  Based on anticipated allocations over the next month, we hope to receive, on average, 200,000 doses a week. If on average, we need to use 100,000 of these vaccines for second doses, that leaves 100,000 doses a week to distribute among the remaining 2.4 million individuals that will be eligible to be vaccinated.  So for now, it will take time to reach everyone.

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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