Death Toll Climbs in LA County; 500 New Cases Reported on Wednesday

The number of coronavirus deaths in Los Angeles County officially topped 400, as 42 new deaths were reported on Wednesday and 500 new cases.

The high death toll marks the single deadliest day since the outbreak in LA County.

Meanwhile, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director warned that everyday life will look dramatically different even after the stay-at-home orders are eventually lifted.

“We will continue to need physical distancing requirements and

directives for many months to come,'” she said.

Ferrer gave a series of examples of changes people may see, such as continuing limits on the number of people permitted inside stores, limited attendance at cultural exhibits or events, one-way trails and hiking paths, temperature-taking at entrances to some facilities and hand-washing and sanitation stations in public places.

On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Garcetti said large gatherings, including sports may not resume until 2021.

“Our goal is to get as many people back to work as possible, but we also need to make sure we do this in a way that protects all employees, employers and customers,” Ferrer said.

The 42 fatalities lifted the official countywide total to 402. It rose by one on Wednesday when Long Beach reported one more death.

According to demographics on 330 of the deaths, 34 percent of decedents were Latinx, 31 percent white, 17 percent Asian and 15 percent black. The county’s overall mortality rate — the percentage of people diagnosed with coronavirus who died — held steady at 3.8 percent.

Included in those cases are 28 homeless people, six of them resident in area shelters, prompting them to be isolated and others who had contact with them to be placed in quarantine.

A total of 133 residents of nursing homes or skilled nursing

facilities have died from the coronavirus, representing 33% of all deaths in the county.

The county is investigating cases at 205 “institutional settings,” such as nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, shelters, jails and prisons, that have had at least one case. Those institutions have had a total of 1,764 cases.

A total of 70 cases have been confirmed in the county’s jail system —15 inmates and 55 staff members. There were also 34 cases in prisons, involving 23 inmates and 11 staffers, while four staff members at county juvenile facilities have tested positive, Ferrer said.

As of Tuesday, more than 67,000 people have been tested in Los Angeles County, with about 11 percent testing positive.