Officials reported 10 new COVID-19 infections detected in Pasadena on Wednesday, but no additional fatalities.
The new cases followed a single case reported Monday and three cases on Tuesday. But it was not yet clear if the region was seeing increased transmission due to Labor Day weekend gatherings, or merely test results catching up.
“We anticipated numbers to trend upward as people get tested after Labor Day weekend, and test sites were closed for a few days,” said city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.
Pasadena has recorded a total of 2,453 COVID-19 infections and 117 deaths, according to city data. The most recent death was reported on Sept. 3.
Over the past 30 days, 326 new COVID-19 cases and six fatalities were reported in the city, data shows.
Going back 60 days, the city reported 983 infections and 23 deaths. The first four months of the pandemic brought 1,470 documented infections and 100 deaths to Pasadena.
Officials locally and at the county level had repeatedly implored the public to avert a virus surge, as was seen after past holiday weekends during the pandemic.
Pasadena Mayor Terry Tornek was scheduled to meet with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials to discuss a new countywide partnership with a mobile app called SafePass, meant to help improve contact tracing in L.A. County.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced 671 new infections and 61 additional deaths on Wednesday. Wednesday’s tallies brought the county’s overall totals to 249,859 COVID-19 cases and 6,090 deaths.
“The high number of new deaths are from a backlog of reports received from over the weekend, and the low number of new cases reflect reduced testing due to the excessive heat,” the county health agency said in a written statement. “Public Health is carefully monitoring data over the next couple of weeks to see the impact of the holiday weekend on the transmission of the virus across county communities and recommends testing for individuals possibly exposed to COVID-19.”
“In July, the county saw the steepest increases in hospitalizations, where the average was over 2,100 hospitalizations per day,” the county statement said. “The most significant peaks were two to three weeks after the July 4 holiday.”
Daily hospitalization rates had dropped to levels not seen since April leading into the holiday weekend, county officials said. Hospitals in L.A. County were treating 936 COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, with 33 percent of those people being treated in intensive care units
L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer renewed her call to stay the course when it comes to social distancing protocols.
“Unfortunately, what we’ve learned from the past several months is that we cannot return to normal at this time; we need to maintain our vigilance so that we can continue to suppress the spread of the virus and get to a place when we can safely reopen additional sectors, especially schools,” she said.
The California Department of Public Health reported 1,616 new infections and 83 additional fatalities, raising the state’s totals to 739,527 cases of COVID-19 and 13,841 deaths.
The state’s average positivity rate over the previous seven days was 3.6 percent, according to a CDPH statement. The 14-day average was 4 percent.
As of Wednesday, Los Angeles County accounted for 34 percent of California’s COVID-19 infections and 44 percent of the state’s fatalities.
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