LA County Reports 58 More Coronavirus Deaths, Over 2,400 New Cases Though Officials Say Trends Still Improving
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County reported nearly 60 more fatalities due to the coronavirus Wednesday, along with more than 2,400 new confirmed cases although officials said death rates are continuing to decrease overall.
County public health director Barbara Ferrer said the 2,428 new cases announced Wednesday included about 700 that were part of a backlog of testing results at the state due to a breakdown in the statewide electronic reporting system.
That backlog dated back about two weeks and stalled results of about 300,000 tests statewide.
The new cases reported by the county increased the cumulative countywide total of cases confirmed since the start of the pandemic to 214,270. Of the new cases, 73 were reported by health officials in Long Beach.
Ferrer announced another 58 coronavirus deaths, including one fatality reported by Long Beach on Tuesday and three more deaths Wednesday. To date, 5,112 people have died from COVID-19 complications.
Of the deaths, about 92% of people who have died from the illness had underlying health conditions.
Ferrer noted that while that percentage is high, 8% of people that had no health issues still died from the disease.
"This disease can be devastating whether you have underlying health conditions or you don't," she said.
Ferrer again noted that younger residents continue to represent the bulk of new coronavirus cases saying residents aged 18 to 49 represent more than 60% of all new cases, and they "are driving infections in Los Angeles County at this time."
The 18-29 age group has "the highest case rate among all age groups" in the county, Ferrer said.
Residents between 30 and 65 represent roughly half of all hospitalizations in the county, while those 18-29 are about 9% to 10% of hospital patients.
Ferrer said there have been 1,278 cases to date among the county's homeless population, along with 139 among staffers at homeless shelters or transitional housing facilities. There have been 31 deaths among the homeless.
As of Wednesday, 1,538 people were hospitalized in the county due to coronavirus, with 32% of them in intensive care units and 19% on ventilators.
"We continue to see a declining trend in daily hospitalizations," Ferrer said.
As recently as about two weeks ago, daily hospitalizations were above 2,000.
The drop in hospitalization numbers and death rates has led health officials to express optimism about the success of efforts to control the spread of the virus but it is still widespread.
Also Wednesday, Ferrer mentioned that COVID-19 still presents too much of a risk for colleges and universities to resume in-person classes, with very limited exceptions.
"But that's only for students who are or will become part of the essential workforce," she said.
"And it's only for required activities that cannot be accomplished through virtual learning, this mostly is about labs and practicums. All other academic instruction must continue to be done via distance learning."
