LA County Reaches 30K Coronavirus Cases

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – As Los Angeles County began the processing of easing its lockdown orders Friday, officials reported that the number of cases countywide has crossed the 30,000-mark.

There were 883 new COVID-19 cases in L.A. County over the past 24 hours and 51 deaths, bringing the total case count to 30,296, and the death toll to 1,468.

L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer reported some good news: that the hospitalization rate has remained flat for the past 10 days.

"Our hospitalization rate has remained relatively stable for the last week-and-a-half," Ferrer said.

There are currently 1,790 hospitalized with coronavirus in L.A. County, Ferrer said, 29% of those are in ICU beds and 16 percent on ventilators.

Ferrer also noted a drop of coronavirus deaths among nursing home residents from numbers reported the day prior.

There are 713 residents of institutional settings who have died of coronavirus, the vast majority of which lived in nursing homes. That accounts for 49 percent of all coronavirus deaths in the county.

That's down from the 718 deaths reported on Thursday.

Institutional settings include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, jails, prisons, homeless shelters, treatment centers and supportive living facilities.

Meanwhile, more than 214,000 people have now been tested for coronavirus in L.A. County, with about 12 percent reporting positive for the disease.