Wednesday, June 17, 2020

County Reports Record-High COVID-19 Numbers

2,129 new cases confirmed on Wednesday

CITY NEWS SERVICE

County health officials reported a record-high single-day number of coronavirus cases on Wednesday when 2,129 new cases and 34 deaths were reported.

County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said at least 600 of those cases were the result of a backlog of results from one testing facility.

“We’re getting dumps of lab reports that were not submitted to us in a timely way,” Ferrer said as she urged testing facilities to immediately turn in their data to the county.

The numbers pushed the overall total to 77,189 and 2,992 deaths.

The rate of people who are tested who wind up being positive for COVID-19 is also holding steady at 8%, officials said.

But they warned that people should not get complacent — stressing the virus is still spreading in the community and residents need to keep taking precautions, even as the economy reopens.

“Given that the vast majority of those living in Los Angeles County are still susceptible to COVID-19 and the infection, we need to rely on a refined set of practices that allow us to get back to work and back to living our lives safely,” Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s health services director said.