County Announces Most COVID-19 Deaths in a Single Day

Citing in part reporting backlogs, Los Angeles County announced a daily record high of 91 coronavirus deaths today, along with more than 4,800 new cases, while warning parents that children can also be infected and have experienced increases in hospitalizations.

County public health director Barbara Ferrer said the elevated number was in part the result of a backlog in reporting.

Ferrer also announced 4,825 new cases in the county, but said about 2,000 over those cases can be attributed to a backlog in results from the state’s laboratory reporting system that occurred between last Thursday and Sunday.

The new numbers pushed the county’s overall coronavirus death toll to 4,516, while the number of cases rose to 183,383.

Ferrer noted that the county has confirmed more than 13,000 cases among children aged 17 and younger, and while hospitalizations among children have been relatively low throughout the pandemic, there has been a recent increase, particularly among those aged 12-17.

“It’s a very small number of children overall … [but] hospitalizations among children of all ages has been increasing since April,” she said.

“As a reminder to our young people, they do need to abide by the public health directives that are in place,” Ferrer said. “They need to wear their face coverings. They shouldn’t really be gathering with people they don’t live with, and they should avoid all crowded places. I know it’s a difficult sacrifice, especially for our children and for our teens who are desperate to spend time with their friends.

“I also know that the only way for us to get back on track with recovery is to adopt behaviors that has us remaining right now with members of our households as much as possible. And even if you don’t feel sick, you could be infected and pass the virus on to someone who’s vulnerable — your parents or your grandparents, somebody with an underlying health condition, and they could become devastatingly ill.”

Despite the large numbers of cases and deaths reported Wednesday, health officials offered a generally positive portrayal of key statistics, with the county’s seven-day average positivity rate holding around 8.5%, and new hospital admissions leveling off, albeit at a higher levels than ideal.

As of Wednesday, there were 2,045 people hospitalized due to coronavirus, according to the county.