Los Angeles County Public Health officials on Saturday reported 2,645 new cases of the coronavirus and 51 related deaths, but said hospitalizations are ongoing.
The latest issues of the case did not include a pending backlog of lab reports the province expects the state to send over the next few days via its electronic reporting system, officials said. It is not clear if that changes the overall picture of how fast the virus continues to spread.
Still, officials said, death and hospitalization statistics were not affected by the report, which has made new case numbers inaccurate.
On Friday, there were 1,568 confirmed COVID-19 cases in provincial hospitals; the number above 2000 for much of July. The most recent average of three days of hospitalizations represented a decline of 5.2%, according to the LA Times coronavirus tracker.
LA County now has 206,778 deaths and 4,967 deaths.
“After a fairly rough July, we are cautiously optimistic about what our numbers will show in the first week of August, especially the information on declining daily hospitalizations,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of health. province, in a statement.
“As we look to the future and continue to plan for our recovery, the lessons from our recent past serve as a reminder that we must continue our wait in the face of this still new and dangerous virus.”
Ferrer said this will take many more weeks to set up activities, avoid parties and full of situations, wear face masks in public and keep six feet apart from others.
Orange County reported a similar decline in hospitalizations, with a total of 491 confirmed COVID-19 patients and a three-day average representing a 5.1% decline. The province added 322 cases and 16 deaths on Saturday, bringing the total to 39,076 cases and 720 deaths.
California has 554,389 cases and reported 10,307 deaths statewide.
Officials have warned that the number of cases, including those reported by individual counties, could be artificially low due to glitches in the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange’s electronic database.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, director of health and human services in California, said Friday that between 250,000 and 300,000 results have not been uploaded to the database. It is not clear if the lost test results are scattered across the state or confined to a small number of counties.
The issue has affected LA County’s efforts to locate contacts, and officials on Saturday renewed their plea for any resident who has tested positive to call 1-833-540-0473 to speak with a public health specialist.
Times staff writer Taryn Luna contributed to this report.
