Los Angeles County public health officials on Saturday reported a continued rise in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, saying the increase came at “a critical moment” in the county’s reopening.
Los Angeles County public health officials on Saturday reported 2,169 new coronavirus cases and a continued rise in hospitalizations, saying the increase comes at “a critical moment” in the county’s reopening.
The county also reported 23 coronavirus-related deaths, bringing its total to more than 95,500 cases and nearly 3,300 deaths.
This comes a little over a week after the county permitted the latest round of business sectors, including bars, nail salons and tattoo parlors, to reopen, and about a month after hundreds of thousands of people began taking to the streets for protests decrying the police killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans.
“Over the last few weeks, businesses and public spaces have reopened, and many more people have been out and around others,” Barbara Ferrer, the county health director, said Saturday in a statement. “With increased contact among non-household members, there are many more opportunities for transmission of COVID-19, particularly if public health directives are not followed, and the data is now showing concerning trends.”
The seven-day average of daily new cases stood at 1,900, up from an average of 1,379 two weeks before.
There were 1,698 confirmed coronavirus patients in county hospitals, an increase from the 1,350 to 1,450 daily hospitalizations the county was seeing two weeks prior, officials said.
