Monday, June 15, 2020

County Announces 19 New COVID-19 Deaths

1,071 New Cases of Confirmed on Monday

CITY NEWS SERVICE

County health officials reported 19 new deaths and confirmed 1,071 new cases of the Coronavirus.

To date, health officials have identified 73,791 positive cases of the virus, and a total of 2,926 deaths.

“There are many families across our County who are experiencing the sorrow of losing a loved one to COVID-19. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you every day,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of Public Health. “Contact tracing is a confidential and simple process that has been used by public health departments for decades to slow the spread of infectious diseases and avoid outbreaks. When a person tests positive for COVID-19, it is important to find out where that person has been and who they were in close contact with while they could transmit the disease to others, so that anyone who may have been exposed knows that they may also be positive. If you are contacted by a contact tracer, you caller ID will identify them as ‘LA Public Health,’ and it important that you answer or return their call.”

Public Health continues tracking the number of positive cases and deaths among healthcare workers related to the COVID-19 pandemic response. Public Health has confirmed 44 people who died from COVID-19 worked in a healthcare setting; 32 people who died worked in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, six people worked in hospitals, two people worked in home health, one person worked in a correctional facility, one person worked in a laboratory, and one person worked in an outpatient facility. For one health care worker who passed away, their workplace setting is not specified.

Twenty of the health care workers who died identified as Asian, 18 of the people who died were Latino/Latinx, two of the people who died were African American, two of the people who died were White, one person identified with another race, and for one person who died, their race and ethnicity was not specified. A total of 6,561 confirmed cases of COVID-19 occurred among healthcare workers and first responders; this is an additional 530 new cases reported since the previous week. Six percent of healthcare workers with COVID-19 have been hospitalized.

Forty-four percent of cases are among nurses, though cases have been identified among a range of occupational roles, including caregivers, people who work in administration, physicians and medical assistants. Sixty percent of these cases reported a known source of exposure, and 79% of healthcare workers with known exposure reported being exposed in a healthcare facility. Healthcare workers who are positive worked at 27 different occupational settings, with the vast majority of cases among healthcare workers from skilled nursing facilities and hospitals.