L.A. County Public Health Covid-19 Report: 23 New Deaths, 700 New Positive Cases – Yahoo Entertainment

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released new data on Covid-19 on Saturday, reporting 23 new deaths and 700 new positive cases.

Today’s numbers show that hospitalizations continue to fall; however, case numbers and deaths reported may reflect delays in weekend reporting.

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The data reported brings L.A. County to a total of 23,078 deaths, and 1,217,707 confirmed cases.

At time of reporting, 676 individuals are hospitalized with Covid-19, 25% of whom are in the Intensive Care Unit. Test results have been made available to to more than 6,061,00 people, with 19% testing positive.

Five of today’s new deaths were of individuals above the age of 80. Seven individuals lost to the virus fell between the ages of 65 and 79, while 10 were between 50 and 64 years of age. Of the deaths reported, one came from the City of Long Beach.

With spring break on the horizon, along with a number of religious and spiritual holidays, Public Health recommended that L.A. residents continue to avoid non-essential travel, offering a reminder that travel and in-person gatherings increase the risk of getting and/or spreading the virus. At present, transmission is still widespread, and has actually increased in other states and countries.

Per the state’s Covid protocols, individuals arriving in L.A. County from outside the state must self-quarantine for 10 days.

“We are so close, perhaps only several months away from having enough people vaccinated to accelerate our reopening without adverse effects. However, we remain quite concerned with reports of rising cases of COVID and hospitalizations in a growing number of states. We know the virus does not respect borders,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “If we are able to hold the line here and prevent another wave of increasing infections, we will soon be able to realize the profound benefits of our mass vaccination efforts in reducing spread of the virus and, most importantly, preventing COVID hospitalizations and deaths.”

With L.A. County in the Red Tier of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, movie theaters, museum, zoos, aquariums and indoor dining have been allowed to reopen at 25% capacity. Gyms, fitness centers, yoga and dance studios have been permitted to reopen at 10% capacity, with a masking requirement for all indoor activities, while retail and personal care services have been allowed to increase capacity to 50%, provided that the same safety conditions are upheld. Indoor shopping malls have been able to graduate to 50% capacity, though common areas remain closed. Additionally, school and Institutes of Higher Education have re-opened for in-person activities, with required safety modifications.

At this time, private gatherings involving up to three separate households are permitted indoors, if masking and social distancing is in place, though these gatherings should be limited to a period of two hours. Meanwhile, fully-vaccinated individuals can gather in small groups with others who have received both vaccines, without the need for masking or distancing.

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