LA County: More Than 250,000 COVID Cases Over Past 7 Days

COVID-19 testing site (Photo – Mandy Foster)

L.A. County – ColoradoBoulevard.net:

LA County saw high rates of transmission with more than 250,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past 7 days.

By News Desk

The test positivity rate remains high at 16%, a small decrease from the week prior. Daily hospitalizations have decreased to 4,698 over the past 2 days from a high of 4,814 people hospitalized with COVID-19. While these small decreases may indicate we are no longer seeing exponential growth in transmission, the County is still experiencing a high rate of spread and a large number of people becoming seriously ill.

Given that deaths typically lag increases in cases and hospitalizations by several weeks, the County is seeing an increased number of people dying due to COVID-19, with 72 new deaths reported today.

Residents that test positive are reminded there are several important steps they should take after they receive their test result, including isolating away from others for at least 5 days. To exit isolation after day 5, residents will need a negative COVID-19 viral test collected on day 5 or later and have no fever for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medicine and be asymptomatic or have improving symptoms. Residents who don’t meet these criteria can exit isolation after day 10, provided they have no fever for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medicine and are asymptomatic or have improving symptoms.

Residents are also asked to determine and notify their close contacts of their exposure. Close contacts include those individuals who were less than 6 feet away from the infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period in the 48 hours prior to the newly infected person developing symptoms or testing positive.

Additionally, residents also need to wear a well-fitting surgical or higher-grade mask around others both indoors and outdoors for 10 days, even if they are leaving isolation after day 5. The best masks that block COVID-19 virus particles are N95, KN95, and KF94 masks.