Another 29 deaths were reported by Los Angeles county health officials today, bringing the death toll in the county to 198.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county's public health director, said the new deaths included 17 people who were over the age of 65, with 16 of those having underlying health conditions. Another seven deaths occurred in people between the ages of 18 and 40, with five of those having underlying health conditions.
The county also reported another 620 cases of COVID-19, bringing the overall number to 7,530. That includes the 256 cases in Long Beach and another 80 in Pasadena - both of those cities have their won health departments that operate separately from the county.
The mortality rate for the coronavirus also crept up again slightly, reaching 2.6% on Wednesday, Ferrrer said. That's an increase over last week's mortality rate of 1.8%.
At least 131 institutional settings, including jails, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, shelters, jails and prisons have confirmed at least one case of COVID-19. Officials said Wednesday that at least 43 cases of COVID-19 have been detected in jail settings. At least three inmates and 40 staff members were diagnosed alongside another 10 cases that were confirmed in the state's prison system.
Another two cases have been reported at a county juvenile facility. Both of those involve staff members who work at the Barry Nidorf juvenile hall in Sylmar.
The number of cases in the county's homeless population also increased with at least twelve confirmed so far.
So far, there have been around 36,500 people tested for COVID-19 in L.A. County with roughly 10% of those people testing positive.
Hundreds of health care workers in L.A. County have also tested positive for the coronavirus, Dr. Ferrer said. More than half of those cases are patients who work in hospitals, but other cases have involved emergency medical services personnel and outpatient medical facilities.
At least two health care workers have died from the virus.
The number of confirmed cases around the Southland include:
- Los Angeles County: 7,530 cases - 198 deaths
- Orange County: 931 cases - 15 deaths
- Riverside County: 1,016 cases - 28 deaths
- Ventura County: 243 cases - 6 deaths
- San Bernardino County: 547 cases - 17 deaths
- San Diego County: 1,454 cases - 31 deaths.
Statewide, there are more than 17,803 cases with at least 453 deaths reported. Health officials say there are more than 419,975 cases nationwide with the death toll reaching 14,390 by Wednesday afternoon.