County Reaches Somber COVID-19 Milestone

Hospitalizations continue to decline By Sam Catanzaro L.A. County reached a somber milestone Tuesday of over 5,000 COVID- 19 deaths. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Department of Public Health (Public Health) confirmed 63 new deaths and 1,440 new cases of COVID-19. The number of new cases reported today is missing lab reports from one of the larger labs which is contributing to the lower number of new cases, according to Public Health. “L.A. County has hit a tragic milestone today — more than 5,000 of our friends, family, neighbors and co-workers have died because of COVID-19. This is heartbreaking and reminds us of the human toll of this pandemic. Our hearts go out to the many families that have lost a love one to this pandemic,” said Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health. “One of the deaths we are reporting today is of a young adult under the age of 29. This is a reminder that the risk for all of us is real and that no matter how young you are, this virus can be deadly. We must continue to adopt practices that slow the spread of this virus; this allows us to prevent these untimely deaths.” Tuesday’s numbers do not include backlog numbers. The State indicated that a backlog of lab reports for L.A County from the State electronic laboratory system (ELR) should be reconciled this week. Data sources that track other key indicators, including hospitalizations and deaths, are not affected by this reporting issue, however, the County says. Testing results are available for more than 1,965,000 individuals with 10 percent of all people testing positive. As of Tuesday, Public Health has identified 211,808 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 5,057 deaths. In there has been cases and deaths. There are 1,524 confirmed cases currently hospitalized and 32% of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU. Daily hospitalizations were over 2,000 patients a month ago.