Health Officials Caution Against Gatherings to Cheer on Dodgers, Lakers

Health officials in Pasadena and countywide are urging sports fans to avoid gatherings this weekend to make sure that Laker and Dodger fevers don’t end up leading to the clinical variety.

With the Dodgers playing in the National League Championship Series and the Lakers in the NFL Finals, Pasadena city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said the Pasadena Public Health Department wanted to remind residents to maintain social distancing and refrain from hosting or attending any gatherings with people living outside of their households.

The city and county have both seen decreasing rates of COVID-19 infection in recent weeks, but the novel coronavirus is still very much a threat, and capable of once again taking a strong foothold in Southern California should pandemic precautions become lax.

Five new COVID-19 infections were detected in Pasadena on Friday, according to Derderian. No additional deaths were reported.

The city had documented a total of 2,645 infections and 129 deaths since the start of the pandemic in March.

Huntington Hospital reported treating 28 COVID-19 patients.

Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer has also urged the public not to allow the upcoming excitement in the sports world to distract them from protecting themselves and others from the virus.

“Many of us are enjoying the successes of our local basketball and baseball teams, and we have great reasons to celebrate. I want to remind everyone about the importance of celebrating safely,” she said in a written statement.

“As we have seen, gatherings, even among people who know each other and are asymptomatic, can result in transmission of COVID-19 and ultimately cause people to become seriously ill,” according to Ferrer. “s you celebrate our teams, please do so at home and with people that you live with, or find ways to celebrate virtually with friends and fellow fans. In order to make progress toward more re-openings for schools and businesses, each of us must take action in reducing transmission and moving our community toward recovery and reopening.”

The L.A. County Department of Public Health reported 1,256 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 additional fatalities on Friday.

A total of 279,909 infections and 6,741 deaths had been recorded in the county, in all.

Officials reported 724 patients were hospitalized in the county, with 26% of them in intensive care units.

“While slightly increasing from the low of 673 this week, the number of daily hospitalizations has remained under 800 daily hospitalizations since mid-September,” according to an L.A. County Department of Public Health statement.

COVID-19 outbreaks in the workplace continued to present a challenge, officials said.

“In the last two weeks, 118 outbreak investigations were opened,” according to the county statement. “Because of the possibility of asymptomatic and presymptomatic infection, it only takes one person to contract and become infectious with COVID-19 and unknowingly bring the virus home and expose their household and or go to work and expose their coworkers and start an outbreak.”

Authorities reminded employers to enforce proper safety protocols, such as social distancing and the use of personal protective equipment, and encouraged those who witness violations to report them.

At the state level, health officials reported 3,806 new infections and 67 additional deaths on Friday, bringing the statewide totals to 838,606 infections and 16,428 deaths.

The state’s average positivity rate over the previous seven days was 2.5%, and the 14-day rate was 2.6%, according to a California Department of Public Health statement.

Los Angeles County represented 33% of California’s COVID-19 cases and 41% of the state’s total fatalities.