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LA County Reports 1,901 Newly Confirmed Coronavirus Cases, 57 Deaths

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 1,901 newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus Tuesday and 57 additional deaths, bringing countywide totals to 195,614 confirmed cases and 4,758 deaths attributed to the virus.

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A person skateboards by closed stores on the famous shopping area of Melrose avenue in Los Angeles on August 3, 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)

Health officials also reported that the data was incomplete due to what they said were technology issues with the state's electronic laboratory system, reported in a Monday night emergency phone call.

"This issue has undercounted the county's positive cases and affects the number of COVID-19 cases reported each day and our contact tracing efforts," the county said in a statement. "However, there should not be delays in patients being notified of lab results, as laboratories continue to report tests results directly to providers and hospitals."

The department said it was implementing an independent strategy to get accurate data and a team was reaching out to at least 81 labs to obtain all COVID-19 test results from July 26 through Aug. 4 to determine the accurate case count in the county.

"Public Health is also implementing a system for all labs to report positive test results to the department immediately so that moving forward the department can have an accurate case count and be assured that contact tracing efforts are not delayed," the department said.

While case count data was incomplete, health department officials said other key indicators such as hospitalizations were not impacted by delays.

"While the missing data is troubling and hinders efforts to monitor and reduce the spread of COVID-19, data sources that track other key indicators, including hospitalizations, are not affected by this reporting issue," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "Hospitalization data for Los Angeles County still shows a decrease, and we continue to be cautiously optimistic that our efforts over the past few weeks may be starting to slow the spread."

As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,757 confirmed COVID-19 patients were hospitalized with 31% being treated in intensive care units — a decrease from last week when daily reported hospitalizations were over 2,000.

Of the 4,758 who have died from COVID-19, 49% were Latinx, 24% were white, 15% were Asian, 11% were Black, less than 1% were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and 1% identified as another race.

With testing results available for more than 1.81 million individuals, the overall positivity rate was holding steady at 10%.

Due to the delays, the department has urged any person with a positive lab result to call 1-833-540-0473 to connect with a public health specialist.

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