LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County reported another 46 COVID-19- related deaths over a three-day period ending Monday, along with more than 2,200 new infections.
The 46 new deaths — 20 reported Saturday, 16 on Sunday, and 10 on Monday — lifted the county’s overall death toll to 35,147.
The county Department of Public Health reported 1,134 new COVID infections on Saturday, 688 on Sunday and 442 on Monday for a total of 2,264. The county does not release case numbers on weekends.
Sunday and Monday infection numbers are typically believed to be artificially low due to delays in reporting over the weekend. Overall case numbers are also believed to be undercounted in general, due to most people relying on at-home tests without reporting the results, and others not testing at all.
The new numbers gave the county a cumulative official case total of 3,668,756 as of Monday.
The seven-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 4% as of Monday, down from 5.2% a week ago.
Updated virus-related hospitalization numbers were not immediately available. As of Saturday, there were 830 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals, according to state figures. Of those patients, 95 were being treated in intensive care.
Los Angeles County moved to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “low” virus-activity category last week, thanks to falling case rates and hospital admission numbers.
“Moving into `low’ community level is significant and reflects reduced risk, but it doesn’t mean no risk and certainly for those who are more vulnerable, the risk remains significant,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement Friday. “Low community level is not a promise, and it doesn’t signal the end of the pandemic — we will have to wait to see how metrics continue to change over the coming weeks. It does show that we know a lot more about COVID-19, including what works and how to effectively use the tools we have. My hope is that people will continue to be smart about navigating life with this virus and that we are truly entering a new phase.”
Masks are still required indoors at health-care and congregate-care facilities, for anyone exposed to the virus in the past 10 days, and at businesses where they are required by the owner. They are not required in other locations, but they remain “strongly recommended.”
