LA County COVID Hospitalizations Continue To Decline

LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- The number of COVID-positive patients in LA County hospitals continued its gradual decline, dropping by nine people to 446, according to the latest state figures.

The number of those patients in intensive care was 58 as of Saturday, up three from Friday's total.

Those numbers come one day after local health officials reported 15 more deaths linked to the virus and 1,329 new infections, lifting the county's cumulative totals to 33,811 fatalities and 3,470,848 cases since the pandemic began.

The official number of cases reported each day is believed to be an undercount of actual virus activity in the county, due to the prevalent use of at-home tests that are not always reported to the county, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

County officials have said that roughly 40% of the COVID-positive hospital patients were admitted specifically for COVID, while the others were hospitalized for other reasons but tested positive upon admission.

The seven-day average rate of people testing positive for the virus was 3.9% as of Friday.

-- City News Service