LA County Adds 3,489 New COVID-19 Cases, 160 Deaths; Health Officials Warn Against Gathering For Holiday Weekend

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Thursday reported 3,489 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 160 deaths, bringing countywide totals to 1,158,619 cases and 18,658 deaths.

Of the new deaths reported, 39 people who died were over the age of 80, 58 people were between the ages of 65 and 79, 33 people were between the ages of 50 and 64 and 11 people were between the ages of 30 and 49. Two deaths were reported by the city of Pasadena and 12 by the city of Long Beach.

Health officials said that hospitalizations have decreased by more than 1,000 patients in the last week, with 3,772 COVID-19 patients currently admitted, 29% of whom were being treated in intensive care units — though it's still four times higher than the pre-surge admissions seen between mid-September and late-October.

And while key metrics continued their decline Thursday, health officials warned that another surge could happen if people gather for the upcoming Lunar New Year, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day holidays.

"L.A. County has made encouraging progress in all the key indicators this month," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "Let us not step backward on our recovery journey.

"We know from experience that gatherings, parties, and the other activities we usually do with non-household members on holidays leads to increases in transmission, hospitalizations, and deaths," she continued. "Continuing to slow transmission requires limiting the number of people we interact with. If we do not gather, we save lives."

Health officials also reported that nine of the 6,042 pregnant people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died. Of those who tested positive, 79% were Latinx, 9% were white, 4% were Black, 4% were Asian, less than 1% were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 2% identified with another race and the data was not known for 2%. Among the 3,703 births where there was testing information, 48 infants tested positive for the virus.

With testing results available for more than 5,647,000 people, the county's overall positivity rate was holding at 19%, though the daily test positivity rate had fallen to 6.8%.