Pasadena Marks 105th COVID-19 Death; 21 New Infections Reported

Pasadena lost another resident to COVID-19, bringing the city’s total death toll from the virus to 105, health officials said Tuesday.

The newly reported death was that of a 90-year-old man and occurred on Sunday, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.

City health officials also reported 21 new coronavirus infections Tuesday, marking 1,923 cases in all.

Huntington Hospital was treating 45 patients for the virus, and six tests were pending, according to hospital data.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced 51 fatalities due to the coronavirus.The new fatalities lifted the countywide death toll from the virus to 4,432.

A total of 2,708 new cases were reported by the county, along with 313 by Long Beach. As of Tuesday afternoon, the countywide number of cases confirmed since the start of the pandemic stood at 178,976.

County health officials said a backlog of testing results being reported by the state’s electronic lab system was skewing the numbers, and they expected that backlog to clear over the coming days.

Data-reporting was also affecting the number of people listed as hospitalized due to the virus. The county on Tuesday reported 2,051 confirmed cases in hospitals — not including Long Beach and Pasadena — with 29% of those people in intensive care units. Those numbers, however, did not include data from three hospitals, county officials said, indicating the actual number
of people hospitalized is likely higher.

County health officials have been cautiously optimistic in recent days about the data trends, suggesting that while the pandemic is still raging, key metrics such as testing-positivity rates and hospital admissions appeared to be leveling off, suggesting progress is being made in slowing the spread of the virus.

Public health director Barbara Ferrer on Monday stressed that if residents continued following infection-control measures such as physical distancing and wearing face coverings, the numbers will continue to improve.

She reiterated that belief Tuesday.

“As individuals, and as a community, we must collectively commit to continuously practice the behaviors that slow the spread of COVID-19,” she said in a statement. “Compliance with public health directives, containment of the virus and collaboration across all sectors are key for us to move into the long-term recovery that we all want to see happen as soon as possible.”

Ferrer on Monday stressed the importance of business owners adhering to public health directives and reporting any outbreaks among employees. She said three more local businesses were ordered closed this week due to large- scale outbreaks and failure to comply with operating protocols.

Golden State Foods Corp. in Industry had 43 confirmed cases of the virus, according to Ferrer and the county’s website. S&S Foods in Azusa had 58 cases. Mission Foods in Commerce had 40 cases.

Last week, county officials confirmed that Los Angeles Apparel, site of the county’s worst COVID-19 outbreak — with four deaths and about 375 confirmed cases — was allowed to reopen its clothing factory in South Los Angeles after making changes in training and infection-control measures.

The county had earlier promoted avoidance of “three C’s”: crowded places, confined spaces and close contact with others. On Monday, Ferrer rolled out another “three C’s:: compliance, containment and collaboration, all aimed at urging adherence to control measures such as wearing face coverings and physical distancing, along with stepped up testing and cooperation with contact tracers and working collaboratively across all sectors of government and
business.

“Our businesses and our employers must also do their part, and they’re required to alert us to any outbreaks at their work sites,” Ferrer said. “Employers remain key to ensuring that we can move forward in our recovery journey.”