County’s COVID-19 Positivity Rate Climbs Past 9 percent; Virus Continues Spreading Fast Among Younger Population

Pasadena health officials reported seven new infections and one new death on Monday.

The newly reported fatality was of a person who died some time ago, but was confirmed as a COVID-19 death Monday through a death investigation, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said. The person lived at Golden Cross Health Care.

Pasadena had recorded 1,408 COVID-19 cases and 97 deaths as of Monday.

The trends in Pasadena largely mirrored those county-wide..

“The rise continues to be among young and Latinx people, and many cases affect whole families,” Derderian siad.

Huntington Hospital was treating 61 COVID-19 patients on Monday, according to hospital data.

Meanwhile, the rate of new detected COVID-19 cases continued to increase in Los Angeles County, where officials have noticed a major increase in the number of patients under 40 coming down with the novel coronavirus, health officials said Monday.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced 1,582 new infections and 48 new deaths, bringing the county’s total to 116,750 known positive cases and 3,534 deaths.

The positivity rate, which reflects the rate at which new detections are discovered, has increased to 9% in L.A. County, officials said. Over the past seven-day period, it’s even higher at 9.5%. Gov. Gavin Newsom has cited 8% as a threshold for state intervention.

L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer expressed gratitude for the efforts of county residents thus far and encouraged them to continue working to combat the virus through measures such as social distancing, masks and frequent hand washing.

“Thank you to the businesses and individuals that are working so hard to adhere to the protocols we have laid out, which are now more important than ever,” she said. “Our ability to follow the most basic infection control and distancing directives reduces serious illness, and even death of the people we love, and the death of those loved by others.”

“What we do now determines where we are in three (to) four weeks. The sooner we all recommit to taking care of each other, the sooner we create a new normal, where we get back to work, school, and our friends and extended family,” Ferrer said.

About half of new infections detected in the county involved patients between 18 and 40 years old, county officials said.

“Hospitalizations for individuals between 18 and 40 years old have also increased from a little over 10% of hospitalized cases in April to about 25% in July,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a written statement.

Officials said 1,921 patients were hospitalized in the county as of Monday, with 28% of them in intensive care units and 18% of them being treated with ventilators.

Tests have been complete for 1,199,000 people in L.A. County, officials said. About 93% of the patients who have succumbed to the novel coronavirus had underlying health conditions.

State health officials reported 5,699 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, as well as six new deaths.

In all, California had seen a total of 271,684 infections as of Monday, according to the California Department of Public Health. The death toll reached 6,337.

Making sure enough tests are available remains an issue, L.A. County Department of Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly siad.

“There continues to be high demand for testing services,” she said. “We opened up 6,000 slots this morning. Those are already full. We’ll add additional spots and open those up tomorrow and the next day.”

The county was also looking into opening 5 to 10 new community-based testing sites, Ghaly said. Additional details were to be announced in the near future.

Several businesses were shut down by county health inspectors over the Independence Day for flouting COVID-19 safety restrictions, Ferrer said.

“Those were businesses that were completely not in compliance,” she said. “The main reason was they were continuing with in-person, inside dining.”

Meanwhile, both county and federal officials cautioned the public to avoid a batch of tainted hand sanitizers that had made their way to the marketplace.

Hand sanitizers made by “Eskbiochem SA de CV” in Mexico have been determined to contain methanol, a toxic form of alcohol “which can cause blindness and/or death when absorbed through the skin or when swallowed,” according to the county health department statement.

Most hand sanitizers use ethanol or isopropanol, which are safe for external use, as their active ingredients, officials added.
More information, including a listing of infections by city, is available on the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s website.