Today, Los Angeles County had 1,416 more new confirmed cases than the total announced yesterday. According to the county public health department, “the large increase in positive cases reflects a lag in reporting from one lab of over 500 positive cases.” New hospitalizations more than doubled from forty-two yesterday to eighty-seven today. Nonetheless, new deaths decreased from forty-six to forty-two. The number of COVID-19 patients currently hospitalized swelled another 2.5% today from 1,422 to 1,457. The number of patients currently being treated in the ICU jumped from 370 to 437 as did those on ventilators from 242 to 306.

The total number of confirmed cases for last week (through Sunday) was 10,008 (+42.7% over the previous week) and happened to include all three of the days with the county’s largest increases. During last week, there were 337 new hospitalizations (-6.6% from the previous week) and 258 new deaths (-8.8% over the previous week). During last week, there were an average of 1,445 patients in hospital care (-5.1% over the previous week), 398 of these in the Intensive Care Unit (-2.6% over the previous week) and 275 on ventilators (-5.8% over the previous week).

Los Angeles County continues to lead California with the most number of COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths by a huge margin with over 47% of the state’s confirmed cases and over 55% of its deaths. The number of daily new confirmed cases is now unmistakably on the rise from the range where it had been roughly plateaued in recent weeks. Hopefully, these recent increases are more likely the result of the huge boost in testing over the past month (roughly tripling) rather than the local situation deteriorating. New hospitalizations dropped more than half last month and even new deaths decreased slightly over this same span of weeks but now looks to be back on the rise. Inside the hospitals, the current number of patients, in the ICU and on ventilators are all down from the previous week.