County officials provide updates, and answer questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic for May 21th, 2020.

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 46 new deaths and 1,204 new cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Twenty-eight people who died were over the age of 65 years old and 12 people who died were between the ages of 41 to 65 years old. Thirty people had underlying health conditions including 20 people over the age of 65 years old and 10 people between the ages of 41 to 65 years old. Three deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach and three deaths were reported by the City of Pasadena.

To date, Public Health has identified 42,037 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 2,016 deaths. Ninety-two percent of people who died had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 1,863 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health) 39% of deaths occurred among Latinx residents, 29% among White residents, 17% among Asian residents, 12% among African American residents, 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, 24 cases reported earlier were not LA County residents. As of today, 6,026 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (14% of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. Testing capacity continues to increase in LA County, with testing results available for over 403,000 individuals and 9% of people testing positive.

“To those of you who are suffering and grieving because of the loss of a loved one to COVID-19, we offer you our deepest condolences. We are thinking of you every day,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “As more businesses and spaces are open, as individuals and institutions, we can take care of each other by continuing to practice physical distancing, wearing cloth face coverings, and following all of the directives for safer practices at businesses and in public spaces. We can do this, because we’ve done it. We have worked together doing our part to save lives.”

Staying home, physical distancing and wearing cloth face coverings has resulted in a decreased number of new infections. Based on data from the Recovery Dashboard and key recovery indicators, Public Health is noting that the 7-day average of deaths per day decreased for most groups and the 3-day average for the number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 also decreased. The 7-day average of deaths per day is 37, a 12% decrease from the prior 7-day average. The 3-day average for current hospitalizations per day is 1,532, a 15% decrease from the prior 3-day average. LA County is on target for maintaining adequate hospital capacity, including capacity in intensive care units and adequate numbers of ventilators, and approaching the goal of testing 15,000 people per day. The County is also on target for contacting tracing and other indictors found on the Recovery Dashboard.

As the recovery journey continues and more people are out of their homes, it may be more difficult to slow the spread of COVID-19. Because there is a 14-day incubation period for COVID-19, the actions everyone takes today will impact where these numbers are in two or three weeks. Everyone must continue to follow distancing and infection control protocols, stay at least six feet apart and wear a clean cloth face covering that securely covers both your nose and mouth when in contact with other people not in your household. Businesses will need to continue to implement their physical distancing and infection control practices that protect both employees and customers. The best protection against COVID-19 continues to be to wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, self-isolate if you are sick, practice physical distancing (especially by staying at home) and wear a clean face covering when in contact with others from outside your household.

Current Health Officer Orders allow for retailers and manufacturers, select recreational facilities, and beaches to reopen and require specific higher-risk businesses to remain closed. Retailers remain closed to public entry, beaches are open for active recreation only, and public and private gatherings of any number of people outside of a single household unit are still not permitted. LA County is in stage two of the five-stage Roadmap to Recovery and until the final stage five is reached, Health Officer Orders and directives will continue to ensure that we slow spread of COVID-19 to prevent an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases at healthcare facilities. People who have underlying health conditions remain at much greater risk for serious illness from COVID-19, so it will continue to be very important for the County’s vulnerable residents to stay at home as much as possible, to have groceries and medicine delivered, and to call their providers immediately if they have even mild symptoms.

The Health Officer Order, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov .