Pasadena Sees Another COVID-19 Death; Virus Poised to Become 2nd Leading Cause of Death in L.A. County

Pasadena saw one new COVID-19 death and 44 new infections on Wednesday, while California surpassed New York to become the nation’s leader in coronavirus infections and Los Angeles county health officials reported that COVID-19 was quickly on its way to becoming the second leading cause of death, authorities said.

The new death reported in Pasadena was that of a 70-year-old man who lived in the community, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.

The new cases raised the city’s total known infections to 1,802, and the city’s death toll stood at 103. Over the past week, Pasadena has seen an average of 31 new infections per day, according to city data.

Huntington Hospital officials reported 56 coronavirus patients were being treated at the facility on Wednesday. Fifty-five tests were pending.

“We continue to see a trend of high cases,” Derderian said.

In addition to a surge among the population under 40 years old, cases have also been seen spiking among the Latinx community, she said.

“The case rate for the Latinx population continued to increase, while all other races/ethnicities have remained the same,” she said. A reason for the disproportionate increase was not clear.

California state officials announced Wednesday that the state had surpassed New York in total number of known virus infections and had become the national leader.

Gov. Gavin Newsom reported 12,807 new COVID-19 cases and 116 new deaths.

The seven-day average of new cases reached 9,520, up from about 8,300 the prior week, Newsom said.

In all, California had seen well over 413,500 infections and 7,870 deaths as of Wednesday, according to state data.

New York had recorded 408,886 infections and 25,068 deaths as of Wednesday, according to the New York State Department of Health.

L.A. County health officials continued imploring the public to follow social distancing guidelines and wear masks in public as they announced COVID-19 was on track to become the county’s second leading cause of death, behind only heart disease.

Officials announced 3,226 new cases in L.A. County on Wednesday, as well as 64 additional deaths, bringing the totals to 164,870 infections and 4,213 deaths.

Average detected COVID- cases over the past week reached 2,952, up from 1,763 a month ago, the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a written statement. “This is higher than at any point this entire pandemic.”

Putting the deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus in perspective, county officials said that influence killed 1,521 people during the seven-month-long 2019 flu season. COVID-19 has claimed over 4,200 lives in the little more than four months since the first death was recorded in March.

“The flu is a dangerous virus in its own right, but it is nowhere near as deadly as COVID-19,” L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said. “COVID-19 is on track to become the second leading cause of death in L.A. County and we need to take its strength and power seriously. A lax attitude to this virus can be deadly for someone you love.”

“You could be infected, not know it, and pass the infection to someone you love who may not be as lucky as you,” she said. “ Please be caring of those around you — wear a face covering, maintain physical distancing and practice hand hygiene. It can save lives.”

Authorities said 2,207 people were hospitalized with the virus in L.A. County, officials said. Twenty-seven percent of them were in intensive care units and another 19% required treatment ventilators.

“This is the fourth consecutive day of over 2,200 hospitalizations,” according to the county statement.”

With just under 1.58 million COVID-19 tests administered in the county, the total positivity rate had reached 10 percent.