On Friday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported overall increases in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and the positivity rate for tests.
The 7-day average of new daily cases is now 1,979; an increase from the average of 1,379 two weeks ago.
There are currently 1,676 people hospitalized for COVID-19. This is greater than 1,350 to 1,450 daily hospitalizations observed in the past few weeks. Test results are available to more than 1,020,000 people, with 9 percent of people testing positive.
The cumulative positivity rate increased from 8% to 9%, while the 7-day average of the daily positivity rate increased to 8.8%. That’s outside a key state guideline for reopening, which requires the 7-day average of the daily positivity rate to be less than 8 percent.
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Additionally, county officials had put the positivity rate at 8 or 8.3 percent earlier this week, so 9 percent would now indicate a sharp rise in just a few days.
Another California guideline for reopening says the 7-day average daily percentage increase in the total number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients should be less than 5 percent. While the exact timing of the numbers is a little vague, the 1,676 people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 would appear to be much more than 5 percent higher than the seven-day average, which LA County Health puts between 1,350 and 1,450 patients. with coronavirus.
Statewide, the test positivity rate has also increased. As of Thursday, the positivity rate was up to 5.1 percent in the past 14 days. On Thursday, the governor said, that rate registered 5.6 percent. On Friday, the rate rose to 5.7 percent.
Infections among people ages 18 to 40 are increasing more rapidly. The Los Angeles County Health Department said Friday and new cases among that cohort had increased 44 percent in the past 16 days.
On Thursday, Johns Hopkins University indicated that Los Angeles now has the highest number of coronavirus cases of any county in the nation.
Johns Hopkins reported 89,633 total cases in Los Angeles County as of Wednesday. The numbers at that institution often outperform other sources, but the Centers for Disease Control was slightly lower, with 89,490 total infections. That would still put the county at the top of John Hopkins’ ignominious list.
This occurs the same day that California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that, after weeks of engagement with the state’s hardest hit county, he was asking officials in Imperial County, near San Diego, to increase restrictions. preventive measures of COVID.
The Imperial County average test positivity rate for the past 14 days is close to 23 percent. As a result, “they need to decompress their hospital system,” Newsom said.
Newsom said it did not currently intend to “switch” to any other area of the state, but reserved the right to do so in the future.
There are 13 other counties on the state’s “watch list,” according to the governor. Those counties are Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, and Tulare.
