LA County Reports 1,584 New Coronavirus Cases, 48 Additional Deaths
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County public health officials reported 1,584 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 Monday and 48 additional fatalities, bringing countywide totals to 116,570 cases and 3,534 deaths.
"There's a significant increase in the percentage of cases among 18- to 40-year-old residents," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said.
Health officials said 50% of the new cases reported Monday were young people.
Ferrer blamed the numbers on increased socializing, citing a study by the University of Southern California that found more than half of those polled admitted having contact with someone they don't live with.
"It's clear that after months of quarantine, combined with the reopening of many sectors in the span of several weeks, we have had a lot of people disregard the very practices that allowed us to slow the spread," Ferrer said.
Officials also reported 1,921 people — 25% of whom were young people — were hospitalized Monday. This is the highest number of hospitalizations in since mid-May.
Of those hospitalized, 28% were in the ICU and 18% were on ventilators.
"Cases are surging, hospitalizations are increasing and mostly, this is all a reflection of a lot more community spread," Ferrer said.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the rate of people who test positive for coronavirus has increased to 10% over the past seven days, a sign of increased community transmission of the virus.
As of Monday, more than 1.1 million people had been tested for the virus in the county.
State officials also reported an alarming surge in cases from over the holiday weekend. Between Thursday and Saturday, more than 7,200 people tested positive in California.
Last week, the county's Public Health Department reported an increase of 7,232 coronavirus cases for Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
On Friday alone, there were 3,187 new cases of coronavirus, the highest report of new cases to date.
For more information about the reopening protocols for L.A. County, please visit the Public Health website at www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.
