County Officials Report Continued Progress Against COVID-19

Pasadena held stable with six new COVID-19 infections and no deaths reported over the past two days, officials said Wednesday.

In all, the city had recorded 2,542 cases of the virus and 122 fatalities.

None of the six new cases on Wednesday were believed to have been acquired from household contact, but specifics regarding where the infections were acquired was not available, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.

Pasadena saw an average of 8.1 new infections per day over the previous week, according to city data..

Huntington Hospital reported treating 25 COVID-19 patients.

Los Angeles County public health officials reported 1,265 new infections and 31 additional fatalities on Wednesday, pointing to “continued progress in key indicators, including daily hospitalizations and deaths,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health said in a written statement.

The county has recorded 263,333 cases of novel coronavirus and 6,423 deaths in all.

Just under 780 patients were hospitalized with the virus county-wide, with 28% of them being treated in intensive care units.

“Daily hospitalizations have declined and have dropped down slightly lower than the numbers seen in early April,” the county statement said. “The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has been below 1,000 for most of September and reflects, in part, an overall decrease in transmission of the virus and better treatments that result in shorter lengths of hospital stays.”
Fatalities have been on the decline in L.A. County since they peaked at 43 in July. The county saw an average of 20 daily deaths as of Sept. 9.

“The County’s percent test positivity or the percentage of tests that are done that come back positive has fallen significantly from an average of about 8% in July to about 3% in September,” according to the statement. “ A decreased test positivity rate is often a sign of reduced community transmission”
With more than 2.57 million tests administered in total, the county’s overall positivity rate was 9%.
The California Department of Public Health reported 3,146 new infections and 133 new death on Wednesday, bringing the state’s totals to 787,470 cases of COVID-19 and 15,204 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

The state’s seven-day average positivity rate was 2.8%, and the 14-day figure was 3.1%, CDPH officials said in a written statement.

As of Wednesday, L.A. County represented 33% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 42% of the state’s fatalities.