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Health Feb 21, 2023
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Los Angeles County reported 60 new COVID-19 deaths from a four-day period ending Tuesday, along with more than 2,700 new cases.
The county Department of Public Health logged 20 virus-related deaths Saturday, 18 on Sunday, 12 on Monday and 10 on Tuesday. The numbers do not translate to deaths that actually occurred on those days, but they related to when the deaths were officially reported and logged by the county.
The new fatalities lifted the county’s overall virus-related death toll to 35,603. The majority of people who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension.
Meanwhile, the county reported 1,280 new COVID infections for Saturday, 680 for Sunday, 425 Monday and 378 on Tuesday. The county’s cumulative total from throughout the pandemic rose to 3,697,051.
The daily case numbers released by the county are undercounts of actual virus activity in the county, due to people who use at-home tests and don’t report the results, and others who don’t test at all.
The seven-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 6.5% as of Tuesday, roughly the same as the past week.
An updated number of COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals was not immediately available. As of Saturday, there were 714 such patients hospitalized in the county, with 82 being treated in intensive care units.
Some of the patients were hospitalized for other reasons and learned they had COVID upon admission.
Touting the benefits of the latest COVID vaccine, county health officials said Friday that older residents inoculated with the bivalent booster shot are dramatically less likely to be hospitalized or die if they are infected with the virus.
According to the county, unvaccinated adults aged 80 and above were more than three times as likely to be hospitalized and more than 5 1/2 times as likely to die than those who had received the bivalent booster. For those aged 65 to 79, unvaccinated people were 12 times more likely to be hospitalized thank those with the latest booster shot, and nearly 16 times more likely to die, according to the Department of Public Health.
The vaccine does not prevent people from contracting or spreading the virus, but health officials say it reduces the likelihood of severe symptoms or death for those who are infected.
