LA County Reports 897 New COVID-19 Cases, 75 Deaths Including Person Under 18

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Wednesday reported 897 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 75 deaths, bringing countywide totals to 1,211,733 cases and 22,580 deaths.

Of the deaths reported, 27 people were over the age of 80, 29 people were between the ages of 65 and 79, 12 people were between the ages of 50 and 64, four people were between the ages of 30 and 49 and one person was under the age of 18. Long Beach added two deaths.

The seven-day average number of daily deaths was 24 as of March 9, a sharp decline from the 118 average number of daily deaths reported Feb. 9, health officials said.

There have now been two COVID-19 deaths in people under the age of 18. Details about underlying health conditions for the latest death were not immediately known.

Public Health reported that it has confirmed a total of 55 cases of a COVID-19 variant first detected in the United Kingdom, two cases of a second variant first detected in the U.K., 21 cases of a variant first detected in New York and one case of a variant first detected in Brazil. There have been no known cases of the variant first detected in South Africa in L.A. County.

Additionally, there have been 35 cases of the variant B.1.427 and 276 cases of the variant B.1.429 — both first detected in California.

Health officials said the seven-day average number of daily cases by episode date has decreased to 524 new cases per day as of March 9 — the lowest it has been since April 2, 2020.

Public Health also noted that new cases among healthcare workers and residents at skilled nursing facilities have plummeted since vaccinations began in December.

According to the department, there were 1,730 new cases of COVID-19 among healthcare workers in the last week of December compared to less than 100 new cases across the entire county for each of the past three weeks.

As for skilled nursing facilities, the average daily number of cases has dropped to three as of March 9, compared to more than 200 in late December, the department said.

There were 857 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 Wednesday, 28% of whom were being treated in intensive care units. Health officials said average daily hospitalizations had fallen below 1,000, the same number reported before the winter surge.

With testing results available for more than 5,972,000 individuals, the county's overall positivity rate was holding steady at 19%. The daily test positivity rate was 1.9%.