Pasadena Reports 5 COVID-Deaths From June, July

Pasadena health officials reported five additional COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday after receiving delayed reports of fatalities that occurred in June and July from other public health agencies, officials said.

The city also announced 15 new infections, marking 2,402 detected cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, along with 116 deaths.

The late-reported deaths involved Pasadena residents who died within other jurisdictions, said city spokesman Lisa Derderian.

“All of the deaths occurred between June 13 and July 31,” Derderian said. “Two deaths were associated with travel to areas of high community COVID-19 transmission, Las Vegas and Mexico, and two of the deceased individuals were residents of skilled nursing facilities in Pasadena, but died in a hospital outside of the jurisdiction.”

Huntington Hospital reported treating 29 COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, with eight tests pending.

While Latinx communities accounted for the largest share of infections in Pasadena at 45 percent, a trend that officials have long warned about, the largest demographic group accounting for deaths was white at 37 percent, according to Derderian.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced it has revised the county health order to allow K-12 schools to offer in-person instruction to small groups of students with special needs, such as students with Individualized Education Plans, students requiring instruction for English as a Second Language or students needing assessments or specialized in-school services, as long as the school is able to fully implement the Health Officer’s re-opening protocols,” the agency said in a written statement.

Pasadena Unified School officials said the district was examining the issue and would provide an update as to whether PUSD would follow suit by Thursday.

The county also allowed the opening of hair salons and barbershops at 25 percent capacity, which was also announced in Pasadena on Wednesday.

County health officials reported 1,457 new COVID-19 infections and 51 new deaths on Wednesday, bringing the county’s totals to 243,935 cases and 5,878 deaths.

Authorities said 1,048 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in L.A. County, with 31 percent of them being treated in intensive care units.

L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said a slow and methodical opening process is best.

“Right now, a cautious and titrated reopening — with close monitoring of what happens to our data in the weeks to follow — is needed to ensure we are not experiencing significant spikes in cases, hospitalizations and deaths, as we saw in July after re-openings and holidays,” Ferrer said. “As we slowly reopen sectors, we will watch closely how it is impacting community transmission.”

“The longer our county’s seven-day average case rate remains above seven, as determined by the state, the longer we will remain in the state’s most restrictive tier,” Ferrer said. “In addition, once both our seven-day average case rate and seven-day average positivity percentage meet the criteria for Tier 2, they must stay there for at least two weeks before we can be moved to the next less restrictive tier.”

County health officials said worries early in the pandemic that the homeless would suffer from COVID-19 at greater rates because they were unable to abide by “stay-at-home” orders have so far not materialized.

“As of August 27th, 19,715 people experiencing homelessness have been tested with a 1.87 percent positivity rate,” the county statement said. “As of last week, there have been 1,589 cases among people experiencing homelessness and 160 cases among people who work at shelters. To date, 41 people who were experiencing homelessness and two people who were working in shelters have passed away from COVID-19.”

The California Department of Public Health reported 4,255 new infections and 145 new deaths on Wednesday. The state had seen a total of 712,052 infections and 13,163 fatalities.

The state’s positivity rate over the previous seven days stood at 4.4 percent, and the 14-day rate was 5.1 percent, officials said.

As of Wednesday, Los Angeles County accounted for 34 percent of California’s COVID-19 cases and 45 percent of the state’s deaths.