New COVID-19 Cases in Pasadena Remain Low; No Deaths Reported in 3 Days

Pasadena on Monday saw its third day in a row without any reported COVID-19 fatalities, while 19 new infections were detected, according to city officials.

And of the 19 newly reported cases, 16 of them were not brand new infections, but rather older cases that had just been added to city records, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Pasadena Public Health officials have recorded a total of 10,900 COVID-19 infections and 314 associated deaths.

The city’s average daily infections over the prior week also stood and 19, city data shows.

While a third vaccine against the virus created by Johnson & Johnson has received federal approval, it remained yet to be seen when the new formulation might appear in Pasadena.

“The state has not told us when or how much will come to local jurisdictions, but we are hopeful we will be receiving it,” Derderian said.

Officials at Huntington Hospital reported treating 39 COVID-19 patients on Monday, with nine of them being treated in intensive care units.

While continuing to urge vigilance against COVID-19 spread, Los Angeles County’s public health director said today the rate of people testing positive for the virus has fallen to its lowest level of the pandemic, and the effectiveness of vaccines is being proven by dramatic drops in cases among health care workers.

“We are moving in the right direction, a direction that will hopefully lead to us moving forward on our recovery journey, where more of our young people can go back to school for on-site learning,” Barbara Ferrer said during a midday briefing.

Ferrer said the county’s average number of daily new COVID cases has fallen below 1,000, marking a return to “the levels we saw before the (winter) surge. These declines are real and we’re grateful for the choices made and the work done by everyone — individuals and businesses — that is making this possible.”

Ferrer said the daily average testing-positivity rate over the past seven days has dropped to about 3%.

“That’s actually the lowest it’s ever been since we’ve been offering testing in the community,” Ferrer said. “So yes, testing is down, but community transmission is also down as well, and that also drives a reduced demand for testing — less people have symptoms, less people feel sick, less people feel like they’ve had an exposure.”

She noted that at the beginning of January, the testing-positivity average was about 20%.

The county on Monday reported another 32 COVID-19 deaths, along with 987 new cases. The numbers tend to be artificially low on Mondays due to lags in reporting from the weekend.

The new deaths increased the countywide death toll since the start of the pandemic to 21,467. The total number of cases rose to 1,192,895.

According to state figures — which are typically a day ahead of county numbers — there were 1,502 COVID-19 patients in L.A. County hospitals as of Monday, well below the peak of more than 8,000 patients in early January.

There were 475 people being treated in intensive care units for COVID.

As a result of lower demand, COVID testing is now being offered without appointments at all county- and Los Angeles city-operated testing sites, although people can still make appointments if they wish.

The California Department of Public Health announced 3,516 statewide infections and 215 additional fatalities on Monday.

In all, state public health officials had documented 3,479,078 infections and 52,194 deaths.

The state’s average positivity rate over the prior week stood at 2.3%, while the 14-day rate was 2.6%.

As of Monday, L.A.County represented 34% of California’s COVID-19 cases and 41% of the state’s deaths.

City News Service contributed to this report.