Wednesday, May 27, 2020

County Confirms 53 Additional COVID-19 Deaths

CITY NEWS SERVICE

933 new cases confirmed on Wednesday

County health officials confirmed 53 deaths from 933 cases of the Coronavirus on Wednesday.

“For all of you who have lost someone you love to COVID-19, we are so sorry. Through this sad and difficult time, we keep you in our thoughts and prayers every day,” said Barbara Ferrer, Director of Public Health.

To date, Public Health has identified 48,700 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 2,195 deaths. Ninety-three percent of people who died had underlying health conditions.

The increase in deaths comes on the heels of a new order issued on Tuesday.

The new Health Officer Order issued yesterday, called Safer at Work and in the Community, allows for the reopening of houses of worship, office worksites, in-store shopping at retail establishments, including indoor malls and shopping centers, flea markets, swap meets and drive-in movie theaters.

Houses of worship can operate at 25 percent capacity or with a maximum of 100 people, whichever is lower, and retail establishments can operate at 50 percent capacity. Pools, hot tubs and saunas that are in a multi-unit residence or part of a homeowners’ association can also open. Political protests with limited numbers of participants are also allowed.

This Order aligns the county with the state’s orders. Everyone must continue to follow distancing and infection control protocols and wear a clean cloth face covering that securely covers both your nose and mouth when in contact with other people not in your household. Public and private gatherings of any number of people outside of a single household unit are still not permitted except for public protests and faith-bases services as described in the Order. The Health Officer Order continues to require specific higher-risk businesses to remain closed and prohibit dining in at restaurants. Restaurants are still allowed to serve food to customer via delivery, take-out or drive-thru.

“The new health officer order allows more sectors to reopen, adhering to strict distancing and infection control directives,” Ferrer said. “Since none of us wants the recovery to lead to many more deaths, we need to do our part to take care of each other. This means being diligent about physical distancing and wearing cloth face coverings whenever you are around people who are not from your household. These are our essential tools and we need to commit to always using them.”