Los Angeles County Covid-19 Trends August 5th

               NEW CASES               DEATHS              HOSPITALIZATIONS

1ST           3,045                    5                       1,075

2ND          2,361                    5                       1,096

3RD          2,293                  20                       1,138

4TH          3,734                  16                        1,242

5TH          3,672                  19                        1,279

It is valuable to compare trends in L.A. County with those in the rest of the state after L.A. County became the only County with an indoors masking requirement on July 18.  Comparing cases that occurred the week ending July 25 with those that occurred the week ending August 1, Los Angeles County experienced a 22% increase in cases from 16,000 cases to 20,000 cases. Meanwhile, across the remainder of the state, reported cases went from 29,400 during the week ending July 25 to 46,000 cases the week ending August 1, an increase of 57%. Although there may be reasons contributing to these differences beyond masking, data from around the world and from L.A. County have repeatedly shown that masking is a valuable layer of protection against transmission of respiratory viruses.

 

Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) confirms 19 new deaths and 3,672 new cases of COVID-19. To date, Public Health has identified 1,315,313 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 24,739 deaths. Of the 19 new deaths reported today, three people who passed away were over the age of 80, three people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, six people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64, three people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 29. Two deaths were reported by the City of Long Beach and one death was reported by the City of Pasadena. While the number of people dying from COVID-19 remains relatively low, the seven-day average number of deaths, unfortunately has doubled in the past month, from three daily deaths to six daily deaths. 

 

There are 1,279 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized; an increase of 361 people over the past week. Testing results are available for nearly 7,410,000 individuals with 17% of people testing positive. As schools and institutes of higher education return to session and their routine testing programs come back online, Public Health expects to see hundreds of thousands more test results each week and in parallel with those, significant increases in cases. Given that just about every death is preventable, these losses are particularly tragic.