High Numbers of Daily Cases and Hospitalizations is Serious Cause for Concern: New Order Aims to Reduce Risk of Transmission

Los Angeles — With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations surging, yesterday L.A. County announced additional safety modifications that will become effective on Monday, November 30, 2020 and remain in effect for three weeks through December 20, 2020.

The new temporary order aims to reduce the risk of transmission several ways, including by:

• Asking individuals to remain in their homes and with their immediate households as much as possible;
• Reducing mingling with others not in your household;
• Requiring everyone to wear a face covering whenever they are engaging in activities outside their homes where they are, or can be, in contact with others not in their households;
• Reducing capacity at sites where non-household members mingle to avoid crowding.

Right now, the most important action we can all take to stop the surge is to stay home as much as possible. All public and private gatherings and events with individuals not from the same household are prohibited, except for faith-based services and protests. Residents are still permitted to travel to and from essential businesses, work or provide services to a healthcare operation or essential business; residents may also engage in essential activities, or participate in permitted individual or household outdoor and indoor activities while practicing required distancing, infection control and masking.

Restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries remain closed for in-person dining and drinking, as there is high risk of transmission of COVID-19 when people are eating, drinking and talking together without a face covering, as happens when people are dining onsite at restaurants. They are permitted to remain open for pick-up, delivery, and take-out and breweries and wineries may remain open for retail sales at 20% occupancy.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 19 new deaths and 3,143 new cases of confirmed COVID-19. Today’s number has likely dropped because there was no community testing offered on Thursday, and limited testing yesterday.  We will probably continue to see lower numbers through the early part of next week because testing was less available. This brings the total number of deaths of COVID-19 to 7,623 across all areas of L.A. County and 390,891 cumulative positive cases. There are 1,951 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and 25% of these people are in the ICU.

“To the many people across our communities who are spending this holiday weekend mourning the loss of a loved one, we are keeping you in our hearts and thoughts,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “The frustration this pandemic is causing is real and understandable. It is the holiday season and more than anything, we are longing to spend time with our friends and family. If we really care about each other, and we care about those essential workers taking risks every day to make sure we have food, water, healthcare, and needed services, we need to not gather with anyone not in our immediate household. With such a high amount of transmission in our community, gathering with individuals from outside your household, even outdoors, is not safe and puts everyone at risk because of the extended contact with others.”

Of the 19 new deaths reported today, eight people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, six people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, three people who died was between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and two people who died was between the ages of 30 and 49 years old. Fifteen of the 19 deaths reported today were people with underlying health conditions, including seven people who were over the age of 80 years old, five people who were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, one person between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, and two people between the ages of 30 and 49 years old.

Ninety-three percent of the people who died from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 7,196 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 52% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 24% among White residents, 14% among Asian residents, 9% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, 45 cases reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

Testing results are available for more than 3,695,000 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive.

The Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

Please see additional information below: