While optimistic about the current community transmission data it is seeing, the Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Health (Public Health) is preparing for a holiday weekend and warning the public to heed the lessons learned from the spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths that occurred after the previous holidays.

Increases in cases and hospitalizations occurred within a few weeks of the Memorial Day and July 4th holidays. In order to continue the recovery journey, it’s important to utilize the tools that have been learned and adhere to physical distancing and infection control requirements that reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19.

As a reminder, people who are around others who aren’t a part of their household are at a greater risk for COVID-19, which is why it is so important to find ways to celebrate Labor Day without going to parties and barbecues hosted by non-household members.

LA County has made encouraging progress in all the key indicators the past month. The percent of positive tests is a good indicator of how the public is  doing at slowing the spread of the virus. A month ago, on July 31, the seven-day test positivity rate was 8.6%. Today, the seven-day positivity rate is 4.7%, a decrease of 45% in one month. In that same period, the county’s daily hospitalizations decreased by 48%, from 2,220 on July 31 to 1,043 today, Aug. 31. The seven-day average of new cases has also declined steadily over the past month. On July 31 the seven-day average of new cases was 2,883 and today that number is 1,309, a decrease of 55%.

Today, Public Health has confirmed 16 new deaths and 1,022 new cases of COVID-19. To date, Public Health has identified 241,768 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 5,784 deaths. Upon further investigation, three cases and one death reported earlier were not LA County residents.

The City of Glendale reports 3,112 cases, the City of La Cañada Flintridge 163 cases, Sunland 407 cases, Tujunga 423 cases, and in the unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County La Crescenta-Montrose reports 160 cases.–

Of the 16 new deaths reported today, eight people who passed away (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena) were over the age of 80 years old, two people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, four people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64, and two people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49. Eleven people had underlying health conditions including seven people over the age of 80, two people between the ages of 65 and 79, one person between the ages of 50 and 64, and one person between the ages of 30 and 49.

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 5,443 people (99% of the cases reported by Public Health).

Testing results are available for more than 2,296,000 individuals with 10% of all people testing positive.

“Our hearts go out to all our county residents who are mourning the loss of a loved one,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, director of Public Health. “As we approach the Labor Day weekend and as we plan for how our county will reopen schools and more businesses, we must learn from our past. Gatherings – parties, cook-outs and the other activities we usually do with non-household members on holidays – can easily lead to increases in transmission, hospitalizations and deaths.”

On Friday, the state announced a new tiered framework to capture more easily the extent of community transmission in counties across the state and will use this tiered system to guide possible sector re-openings for each county to consider. However, the ultimate decisions about sector re-openings will remain under the purview of the local Health Officer Orders that are developed in consultation with the LA County Board of Supervisors. LA County is currently in Tier 1, meaning that there continues to be widespread transmission of the virus in the county. The current number of new cases per day per 100,000 people is 13.1, nearly double the threshold for this tier, which is less than seven new cases per day per 100,000 population. And even though LA County’s current test positivity rate of 5% it puts the County in Tier 2 (Red) for this metric; when the two metrics fall in different tiers the state places counties in the most restrictive tier. Hence, LA County, like most counties in California, has been placed in Tier 1. The path forward for recovery depends on being able to reduce community transmission significantly so children and teachers can get back to their classrooms and more people can get back to their jobs with as much safety as possible.

The Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things people can do to protect themselves, their families and their community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.