County officials provide updates, and answer questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic for August 3rd, 2020.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) expressed cautious optimism today that community spread of COVID-19 in L.A. County has slowed and that other key indicators are stabilizing.

The positive trends can be attributed to a variety of things, including the decreased opportunities for transmission, particularly in high-risk settings. Several weeks ago, bars were closed, and the indoor operations of a variety of businesses and institutions were moved outdoors.

Today’s 7-day average of cases is around 2,600 cases per day. This is down from a couple weeks ago where the county was seeing over 3,000 cases per day. The 7-day positivity rate has remained mostly flat over the month of July, hovering between 8 and 8.8 percent. And finally, hospitalizations, which is a key indicator of health system capacity, is on a positive trend with 2,000 hospitalizations on average. This number had ticked up to 2,200 in the middle of July. Although all of these key indicators are still too high, the plateauing of the trends is encouraging.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 12 new deaths and 1,634 new cases of COVID-19. To date, Public Health has identified 193,788 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 4,701 deaths. Upon further investigation, 13 cases and three deaths reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

There are 1,784 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 currently hospitalized. Of hospitalized patients, 30% are in the ICU and 18% are currently ventilated.

Of the 11 new deaths reported today (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena), two people that passed away were over the age of 80, four people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, three people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old and two people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Eight people had underlying health conditions including two people over the age of 80 years old, two people between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, two people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old and two people between the ages of 30 and 49 years old.

Ninety-two percent of the people who died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 4,407 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 48% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 25% among White residents, 15% among Asian residents, 11% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.

Testing results are available for 1,804,698 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive.

“Every death that we report represents a family that is experiencing sadness and grief of losing a loved one to COVID-19. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you every day,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “The key indicators that we closely monitor at Public Health are looking positive, and I want to give credit to a large number of our county residents who heeded our orders and took the personal, basic actions needed to slow this virus. Folks wore their face coverings, they maintained physical distance from people they don’t live with, avoided gatherings and parties, and washed their hands. But for our long-term success, we need to continue limiting the spread of COVID-19. We can’t simply go back to life as we knew it before March. We unfortunately still have a long way to go; we must remain vigilant.”

Public Health has a dedicated call line for confirmed cases of COVID-19. If you are positive for COVID-19 and have not yet connected with a public health specialist or need more information on services, call toll-free at 1-833-540-0473. Residents who do not have COVID-19 should continue to call 211 for resources or more information.

The Reopening Protocols, 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 websitewww.publichealth.lacounty.gov.