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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County health officials reported 15 new COVID-19-related deaths Tuesday, along with 921 new infections.
The new fatalities lifted the county's virus-related death toll from throughout the pandemic to 35,690. A majority of people who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension, health officials have said.
County health officials logged 921 new COVID infections for Tuesday, raising the overall total to 3,704,598.
Daily case numbers released by the county are undercounts of actual virus activity in the county, due to people who use at-home tests and don't report the results, and others who don't test at all.
The seven-day average rate of people testing positive for the virus was 6.2% as of Tuesday, roughly steady from the past week.
According to state figures, there were 648 COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals as of Tuesday, down from 692 on Friday. Of those patients, 75 were being treated in intensive care units.
Some of the patients were initially hospitalized for other reasons and learned later they had COVID.