Los Angeles County officials confirmed an additional 40 cases of COVID-19 and one death in Los Angeles County Thursday afternoon, bringing the countywide total to 230 with two deaths.
“We’re reporting 40 new cases, which means the total case number is 230 for the county of Los Angeles,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a news conference Thursday afternoon. “Unfortunately, today I’m very sad to report that we have had an additional death here in L.A. County, which brings (the) total count to two deaths.”
The patient was relatively young, between the ages of 30 and 50, but the patient had an underlying health condition, according to Ferrer.
Testing capacity is increasing every day in L.A. County, with labs in the county testing more than 1,700 individuals, Ferrer said.
“On average for all of the lab specimens that are tested, about 13% of people who have a test are positive,” said Ferrer.
Practicing social distancing can help slow the spread of the virus, Ferrer said.
Ferrer defines the goal of social distancing as “taking every precaution possible to avoid infecting others and to becoming infected.”
“(Social distancing) is the one way that we all can be serious about what it means to try to slow down the increasing numbers of cases here in the county,” said Ferrer. “Everyone should remain at home, as much as possible. Feel free to take that walk, hike or run, just not with a group of people and those who can work at home should work with their employers and make those arrangements.”
In Los Angeles County, there have been 230 confirmed COVID-19 cases, five in the Santa Clarita Valley, and two deaths countywide.
For more information, visit publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/
