9 New Coronavirus Deaths In LA County As Testing Ramps Up
By Brian Frank
Published Mar 26, 2020 12:30 PM
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Nine more people have died in Los Angeles County from complications related to COVID-19, an uptick that directly correlates to an increase in testing, according to public health officials.
That brings the total number of people who have died in L.A. County because of the coronavirus to 21, says county public health director Barbara Ferrer. That total has been corrected by dropping one juvenile case that is currently being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and another case where the individual was determined to be a resident of another county, Ferrer said.
Here are more of the county's updated numbers:
421 new cases were reported today, for a total of 559 in the last 48 hours
The new cases include 41 in Long Beach and 9 in Pasadena
1,216 total confirmed cases have now been reported in L.A. County
More than 9,400 people have been tested so far
About 4,000 of those test results came in just yesterday
That jump in testing largely explains the increase in positive cases
Ferrer said they are not sharing any details on the deaths reported today because they are still working to notify families. With the new numbers, the mortality rate is now at 1.6%, higher than the national average, Ferrer said. However, keep in mind that this number will fluctuate as more testing can be completed.
Ferrer also pointed out that 21% of positive cases have required hospitalization, and she warned that the impact on medical facilities could be severe if we do not adhere to social distancing guidelines and try to shut down the disease's spread:
"If there are 1,000 people that are positive, and each one of those people infects two other people, if we don't curtail that spread within a few weeks, there could be over a million people that would be infected in L.A. County. And if 20% of those people who are infected need some kind of hospital care, you can see why we're urging everyone to help us slow the spread. That could be over 200,000 people that at some point would need to be hospitalized."
Fentanyl and other drugs fuel record deaths among people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County. From 2019 to 2021, deaths jumped 70% to more than 2,200 in a single year.
