After the worst week for new broadcasts since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Los Angeles County reported 2,770 additional positive cases and 37 deaths Saturday.
© (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
Drivers receive COVID-19 test kits at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in South Los Angeles on July 8 (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
For the fourth consecutive day, Los Angeles County saw more than 2,100 people hospitalized for COVID-19, the Department of Public Health said. Of those patients, 18% are on ventilators and 28% are in the intensive care unit.
Public health officials said they are particularly concerned that adults under 40 are hospitalized at the highest rate so far during the pandemic.
Of the 37 people whose deaths were reported Saturday, 25 were over the age of 65, authorities said. Two of the victims were under the age of 40, both with underlying health conditions.
Cases have continued to increase uncontrollably in California, with more than 380,000 confirmed cases in total on Saturday. Hospitalizations have more than doubled and deaths have nearly tripled since Governor Gavin Newsom began allowing companies to reopen on May 8.
“The simple truth of this fight is that this virus is increasingly affecting us,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday.
After a spike in cases, Newsom closed bars in seven counties, including Los Angeles, on June 28, and restaurant dinners on July 1. Authorities have said it will take at least three weeks to know if those closings had any effect.
Health officials have asked residents to cover their faces when they leave their homes and to avoid the “three C’s” of the pandemic: crowded places, confined spaces, and close contact with anyone who is not in their home.
If you think you have COVID-19, stay home, get tested as soon as possible and behave as if you have the virus until you receive the test results, authorities say. That means self-isolation for 10 days and for three days after symptoms disappear.
“We are all experiencing the frustration of this pandemic,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, in a prepared statement. “I ask that everyone behave with kindness and consider that we can all prevent disease and death.”
Los Angeles County residents still account for more than half of California deaths. But as cases in other areas increase, the county’s share of the total number of cases is declining – about 40% now, compared to about half in May.
In the past two weeks, cases have spread faster in several suburban counties, including Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino, than in Los Angeles County, according to a Times analysis.
In California, coronavirus transmission rates continued to increase. The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 exceeded 375,000 on Friday, and the number of deaths exceeded 7,600.
Hospitalizations have also continued to rise across the state, experts worry that a sharp increase in patients could overwhelm the health system.
Meanwhile, in Orange County, health officials on Saturday reported 702 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 additional deaths as the total number of cases continued to rise.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the county is 29,011 and 494 related deaths since the pandemic began. The number of infections in Orange County has grown dramatically in the past month and is now only surpassed by the total for Los Angeles County.
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