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Nearly 1,500 New Cases of COVID-19 Confirmed in LA County

Surge in numbers due to backlog at one testing center

Published on Monday, April 20, 2020 | 6:38 pm
 

LA County’s Department of Public Health confirmed a whopping 1,491 new cases of the Coronavirus and 17 new deaths on Monday.

About 1191 of the cases were from a backlog of tests receieved from one lab. The remaining 293 were confirmed as the daily reported cases.

As part of efforts to increase testing capacity in the county, many new labs responded to the emergency and are working with Public Health to ensure that they have the proper reporting systems in place. Until this reporting issue is resolved, there may be periodic increases in positive cases and total cases due to unevenness in daily reporting.

“My deepest condolences go out to the loved ones grieving today’s reported COVID-19 deaths. You are not alone,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “Today we released preliminary results from a collaborative study with University of Southern California that suggests infection from COVID-19 are more widespread than previously thought. As we plan for our recovery, we are mindful that COVID-19 is a highly infectious virus and we all must continue to do our part to slow the spread. This means keeping our distance at all times, isolating when ill and quarantining if we have been in contact with someone positive for COVID-19.”

According to the preliminary findings from the community prevalence study done in partnership with USC and the LRW Group, infections from the COVID-19 are far more widespread and the fatality rate much lower in L.A. County than previously thought.

Eight hundred and sixty-three LA County adults were tested between April 10th and April 14th using serology testing. Based on results of the first round of testing, the research team estimates that approximately 4.1 percent of the county’s adult population has antibody to the virus.

Adjusting this estimate for statistical margin of error implies about 2.8 percent to 5.6 percent of the county’s adult population has antibody to the virus- which translates to approximately 221,000 to 442,000 adults in the county who have had the infection.

That estimate is 28 to 55 times higher than the 7,994 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported to the county by the time of the study in early April. The number of COVID-related deaths in the county has now surpassed 600. This information helps us better understand how COVID-19 is showing up in our communities.

To date, the department has identified 13,816 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 617 deaths. Eighty-nine percent of people who died had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 544 people (94 percent of the cases); 36 percent of deaths occurred among Latinx residents, 28 percent among White residents, 17 percent among Asian residents, 16 percent among African American residents, and 3 percent among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, 16 cases reported earlier were not LA County residents. As of today, 3,465 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (25 percent of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. Testing capacity continues to increase in LA County, with testing results available for over 80,500 individuals and 13 percent of people testing positive.

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