LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County health officials Friday reported another 35 deaths due to coronavirus and 2,049 new cases.
To date (May 22), Public Health has identified 43,052 positive cases of COVID-19 and 2,049 deaths in all of Los Angeles County, including 606 cases and 15 deaths in Palmdale; 506 cases and nine deaths in Lancaster; 34 cases and seven deaths in Quartz Hill; 27 cases and two deaths in Lake Los Angeles; 35 cases and no deaths in the Littlerock/Pearblossom, Juniper Hills areas; and 12 cases and no deaths in Sun Village. View the latest detailed report here.
Public health director Barbara Ferrer said 93% of the people who died had underlying health conditions, a slight increase of the 92% level of the past several weeks.
“Over 35% of us here in L.A. County, sometimes the number can be as high as 40%, have underlying health conditions,” Ferrer said. “So I know sometimes folks think there’s a very tiny group of people who are at an elevated risk of serious illness from COVID-19, but here in L.A. County it’s one out of three of us.”
Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 99 percent of the cases — 39% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 29% among White residents, 17% among Asian residents, 12% among African American residents, 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.
As of May 22, 6,093 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in LA County have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. There are 1,506 people who are currently hospitalized LA County — 26% of these people are in the ICU and 19% are on ventilators.
County officials warned anyone heading to the beach this Memorial Day weekend that face coverings are mandatory while not in the water. The active-use restriction also forbids sunbathing on the sand, meaning chairs, umbrellas, canopies and coolers are still barred. Piers, boardwalks and volleyball courts also remain off-limits.
The county on Friday also authorized retail stores located in enclosed shopping malls to reopen for curbside merchandise pickup only. Customers are still not permitted to enter enclosed shopping malls. County officials urged shopping malls to establish clearly marked curbside pickup areas for customers to pick up goods.
Also approved on Friday were car parades to allow for celebrations of graduations, birthdays or other occasions. The guidelines, however, require participants to be inside enclosed vehicles — no convertibles — and if windows are open, vehicle occupants must wear face coverings.
An interactive dashboard is available that provides comprehensive information on COVID-19 cases and deaths, along with maps and graphs showing data by city and community. To view Public Health’s COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard, visit: http://dashboard.publichealth.lacounty.gov/covid19_surveillance_dashboard/
Editor’s note: Many readers have inquired about the COVID-19 recovery rate for the Antelope Valley, however, the county has not shared that information. In order to be considered recovered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a person must be free of a fever without the help of medication, show improvement in respiratory conditions, and receive negative results from two separate COVID-19 tests performed at least 24 hours apart. The priority for testing right now may be diagnoses, not recovery.
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