Today, Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach each had one new confirmed case and Manhattan Beach added two to its count. As we head into the weekend, Hermosa Beach atypically has already increased their number of confirmed cases by seven over the past four days, exceeding their total in the entire month of May! Torrance already has twenty-one new confirmed cases so far this week, handily exceeding its total for the entire week prior to Memorial Day.

Over the course of last week (through Sunday), Torrance added thirty-five new cases, Redondo Beach increased by six, El Segundo and Manhattan Beach each added three, and Hermosa Beach added just one new confirmed case. The additions in Torrance last week more than doubled its cases the week before and alone exceeded the sum of all the cities combined during that same week. These numbers and comparisons with last week are shown in the chart below.

Among the South Bay beach cities, Hermosa Beach still has the fewest confirmed cases (36) and the lowest case rate at 183.02 per 100,000 people. Torrance continues to have the most confirmed cases (now 409) and the highest case rate at 274.0 per 100,000 people.

The current overall situation in the beach cities of South Bay Los Angeles range from stabilized (Hermosa Beach, El Segundo and Manhattan Beach) to slightly less so (Redondo Beach) to concerning (Torrance). New confirmed cases in Los Angeles County are continuing to increase at a much higher rate than these cities. Testing has signicantly increased this past week. All of the South Bay beach cities have now surpassed having four percent of their population tested. El Segundo and Hermosa Beach testing has now surpassed five percent of their population.

To this date, most of the beach cities considered here have done well at keeping the spread down. Looking at individual, isolated portions of the overall story told by the charts below, it’s possible to see an idyllic local picture and wonder what’s the big deal? Looking just several miles distant or at the larger context, the situation isn’t nearly so idyllic though and bears further vigilant monitoring because things can get bad very quickly…