County officials provide updates, and answer questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic for August 24th, 2020.

As 13 new deaths and 1,198 new cases of COVID-19 are confirmed, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) sees signs of the spread of COVID-19 slowing in key indicators, including daily hospitalizations and deaths.

Daily hospitalizations numbers have decreased by 45% from the peak of over 2,200 in mid-July. There are 1,219 confirmed cases currently hospitalized and 32% of these people are confirmed cases in the ICU. The decreasing number of daily hospitalizations is one of the best indicators as it is an accurate representation of how many people are currently seriously ill from the virus.

To date, Public Health identified 232,893 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 5,558 deaths. In mid-July, the 7-day average of people passing away from COVID-19 was an average of 44 deaths per day. On August 16, the average number of deaths was at an average of 28 deaths per day. In mid to late July, the daily reported number of new cases was around 3,200 cases per day. As of August 22, the 7-day average is 1,400 daily reported new cases.

Testing results are available for more than 2,195,000 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive. The department is currently seeing a 7-day average positivity rate between 5% and 6%.

Of the 13 new deaths reported today, nine people that passed away (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena) were over the age of 80 years old, two people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, one person who died was between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Eleven people had underlying health conditions including eight people over the age of 80 years old, one person between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, one person between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and one person 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 5,231 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 50% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 24% among White residents, 15% among Asian residents, 10% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to everyone who has lost a loved one or friend to COVID-19,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Thankfully, the work we have all done as a community and the sacrifices we are making are working. If we can maintain this lower rate of transmission, it means that we could begin to think about schools, more businesses reopening or, someday, moving their operations back indoors. I know this has been an extraordinarily difficult time, but we must all take our roles seriously and be diligent. It is everyone’s goal to get to a place of safer reopening. But community transmission rates must continue to decrease if we are to get to this place – including where schools can reopen in a way that is safer for students, teachers and staff members.”

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, wear a clean face covering that securely covers both your nose and mouth, and to stay home and limit activities outside to what is essential – work, getting groceries and medicine, and medical visits. It’s important if someone thinks they could be positive for COVID-19 and are awaiting testing results, to stay at home and act as if they are positive. This means self-isolating for 10 days and 24 hours after symptoms and fever subside, or until they receive a negative result. If someone has been in close contact with a person with COVID-19, they will need to quarantine for 14 days from when they last had close contact with the infectious person.

Public Health has a dedicated call line for any person with a positive lab result. If you are positive for COVID-19 and have not yet connected with a public health specialist, the department urges you to call 1-833-540-0473 to connect with a public health specialist who can provide information about services and support. 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 website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/.