Thursday, May 21, 2020

County COVID-19 Death Toll Reaches 2,000

57 additional deaths reported on Wednesday

CITY NEWS SERVICE

The County health department confirmed 46 new Coronavirus deaths and 1,204 new cases, taking the death toll above 2,000 cases.

To date, the department has identified 42,037 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 2,016 deaths.

“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, 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.

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.