Los Angeles County health officials announced another 25 deaths due to COVID-19, pushing the death toll in the county to 320. However, only 239 new cases of the coronavirus were reported today, marking the county's lowest daily increase in new cases since March 26.
According to Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the head of the county's Public Health Department, the total number of COVID-19 cases in L.A. County is 9,420, but thanks to additional cases reported by the Long Beach Health Department, the number is actually 9,433.
The county's mortality rate continued to increase, rising again to 3.4%. The figure has been slowly increasing as the pandemic has worked its way through the region, with the figure in early April 1.8%. Eleven of the deaths reported on Monday were people who were over age 65 with underlying health conditions. Twelve of the deaths were of people between 41 and 65, with all but one of them having pre-existing health conditions.
Health officials today also released a breakdown by race on the more than 300 people who have succumbed to COVID-19.
- 14% were African American
- 18% were Asian
- 33% were Latinx
- 33% were white
- 2% were listed as other
Dr. Ferrer said there have been at least 787 cases involving healthcare workers, with one-third of those being nurses, and 9% doctors. Three healthcare workers have died from COVID-19 - two who worked in hospitals and one correctional health worker.
The county is also investigating cases in at least 185 institutional settings, which include nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, shelters, jails and prisons. So far, the county has confirmed 1,372 cases and 92 deaths - all of whom were residents.
"With the spread of COVID-19 in our communities, we continue to see more and more cases among staff and residents at institutional settings,'' Ferrer said. "And I know this is a challenging time to try to figure out how to best meet the needs that often require that people remain in institutional settings while making sure that we have every protection possible both for residents and for staff. ... We have (public health) teams that work with every single facility that has a positive case so that management and staff along with county support can do their very best to protect the health of people who are residing in our facilities.''
Eighty-nine cases have been confirmed in the county's jails. At least 26 inmates and 63 staff members have been confirmed to have COVID-19.
At least 23 cases have been detected among the county's homeless population, with at least 19 of those people having been unsheltered. Four of the homeless were living in a shelter and have been placed in quarantine.
The number of confirmed cases around the Southland include:
- Los Angeles County: 9,420 cases - 320 deaths
- Orange County: 1,283 cases - 19 deaths
- Riverside County: 1,619 cases - 41 deaths
- Ventura County: 314 cases - 10 deaths
- San Bernardino County: 887 cases - 31 deaths
- San Diego County: 1,804 cases - 45 deaths
Statewide, there are more than 23,542 cases with at least 683 deaths reported. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 572,169 cases nationwide with the death toll reaching 23,070 by Friday afternoon.