Ten more COVID-19-related deaths were reported by Los Angeles County health officials Wednesday, along with more than 1,000 new infections.
The new fatalities gave the county an overall death toll from throughout the pandemic of 33,719. On Tuesday, the county reported the virus-related death of a person under age 18 — the 14th child to die of COVID complications since the pandemic began.
Another 1,058 COVID infections were reported Wednesday, raising the cumulative total to 3,461,037 since March of 2020.
Daily case numbers reported by the county have been steadily falling for weeks, although health officials have conceded that the official figures could be misleading due to residents primarily using at-home tests that aren’t reported to the county.
According to state figures, there were 501 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals as of Wednesday, down slightly from 508 on Tuesday. Of those patients, 65 were being treated in intensive care, down from 69 a day earlier.
COVID hospitalizations numbers have been generally declining over the past few months, reflecting overall decreases in virus transmission in the county. In mid-July, there were more than 1,300 virus-positive patients in county hospitals.
County officials have said that roughly 40% of those patients were admitted specifically for COVID, while the others were hospitalized for other reasons but tested positive upon admission.
As of Wednesday, the average seven-day rate of people testing positive for the virus in the county was 4.4%.
