1 New COVID-19 Death and 12 New Infections Reported in Pasadena; Virus Continues Youth-Driven Spread in L.A. County

Another Pasadena resident was added to the city’s list of COVID-19 casualties Wednesday as 12 new infections were reported, officials said.

The latest victim was described as a 61-year-old woman who lived in an assisted living facility, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. She succumbed to the virus on Monday.

“The median age of death is now at 82,” Derderian said. It has been steadily declining for well over a month.

Ninety-five of the 111 people who have died from the novel coronavirus in Pasadena were 65 or older, according to city data. Fourteen deaths of patients between 41 and 64 years old have been reported, and two deaths involving people between 18 and 40.

Pasadena reported a total of 2,035 cases Wednesday.

While the virus was initially thriving in the senior population, new infections in people under 40 significantly outnumber those reported among older people, according to the data.

Thirty-nine patients at Huntington Hospital were undergoing treatment for COVID-19 as of Wednesday, according to the hospital. Forty-five tests were pending.

More than 340 people in Pasadena have been hospitalized with the virus at some point during the pandemic, city data show.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced 2,347 new COVID-19 cases and 68 additional deaths on Wednesday. Officials have warned that a problem with the state laboratory reporting system had been resulting in undercounts of new infections for about two weeks. The problem was not believed to be affecting hospitalization or death figures.

In total, L.A. County had seen 197,912 positive cases of COVID-19 and 4,825 fatalities.

County officials noted that nearly 60 percent of new cases were among people between 18 and 49 years old, “with residents between the ages of 30 to 49 years old driving most of these reported cases,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health reported in a written statement.

“Since the beginning of June, case rates for this group nearly tripled to a high of 1,122 cases per 100,000 population on July 24,” the statement added. “Younger residents are also being hospitalized more than before. People between the ages of 30 and 49 years old account for 25 percent of hospitalized patients in the County.”

L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer urged younger people to take the threat seriously.

“We all know that COVID-19 can affect all of us, no matter how young we are. It can also cause a ripple effect that ends up infecting those among us that we love,” she said. “A young person going to a party can then go back home and infect their parents or older relatives, causing them great harm. So I really encourage everyone, especially younger adults to think about this when deciding whether to see a group of friends at a party or staying home and visiting their friends virtually. We can and will one day get to the point where hanging out with a group of friends is possible — but we aren’t there yet.”

Officials reported 1,768 patients were hospitalized in the county on Wednesday, with 31 percent being treated in intensive care units. More than 2,000 people were hospitalized each day, on average, last week.

L.A. County’s positivity rate remained at 10 percent, with more than 1.8 million COVID-19 tests administered, officials said.

State officials reported 5,295 new infections and 202 deaths on Wednesday.

Wednesday’s reported deaths represented the second-largest number yet reported in the state, according to California Department of Public Health data. Authorities announced 219 deaths on July 31.

The state had seen a total of 524,722 COVID-19 cases and 9,703 deaths.

Over the past week, an average of 7,060 new infections have been detected daily, down from 8,818 the prior week, state public health officials said.

“Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed,” the CDPH said in a written statement.