The daily number of new positive cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County has increased since mid-September. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) the current average is approximately 1,000 new cases per day. From August through the beginning of September, the number of new cases was under 800 per day.
“With more interactions between people as businesses reopen, there is an increased risk of transmission that can result in people becoming seriously ill and tragically passing away,” said a statement from Public Health released mid-week.
To date, Public Health has identified 290,486 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and a total of 6,944 deaths. The number of confirmed cases in Beverly Hills stands at 730.
Those numbers continue to keep the County in the State’s most restrictive purple tier (Tier 1) in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Currently, the County’s adjusted case rate is 7.6 new cases per 100,000 people. In order to move to the next less restrictive Tier, the County must reduce its daily number of new cases to no more than seven new cases per 100,000 people for two consecutive weeks.
Currently, there are 758 people with COVID-19 hospitalized in the County, and 28 percent of them are in the ICU.
“We have been living the realities of this pandemic for eight months, and these times have been full of loss and difficulties. As we head into a season with many holidays and as we celebrate our accomplished sport teams, it can be very tempting to relax our diligence. Unfortunately, this would result in more cases making it difficult to move forward in our recovery and leading to unnecessary illness and death. If congregating with others not in your household, please do so only outdoors in places where you can keep six feet of distance from others and always wearing your face covering,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health.
As of Oct. 19, a total of 986 schools are open for in-person learning for high-need students; 69 percent are public schools, 18 percent are charter schools, and 13 percent are private schools. Almost 35,000 students and 20,000 staff have returned for this onsite learning.
To date, Public Health has received 110 waiver applications from schools to open for grades TK-2 in-person learning. A total of 87 applications submitted are from private schools, 18 applications are from charter schools, and five applications are from public schools. Waiver approvals have been issued to four schools to date and can be viewed on Public Health’s school waiver page. Once a complete application is submitted, the review process takes about two to three weeks.
The Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things to do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.
