Los Angeles County Coronavirus Update: Daily New Cases Drop After Record Highs This Week

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As cases in the state of California hit a new record, Los Angles County’s numbers fell on Thursday from county’s own recent record highs.

On Friday the county announced it had recorded 1,414 new cases for Thursday. That was down from a record 2,126 new cases reported on Wednesday. Wednesday’s number also included 600 delayed cases from one testing lab.

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By comparison, there were 1633 new cases in the county as of last Friday, according to the health department. That was the third-highest one day total since the outbreak began, according the L.A. county coronavirus dashboard. Friday’s number included 500 delayed cases from one lab.

Last Thursday, the Department of Public Health reported 1,857 new confirmed coronavirus cases. Before this Wednesday’s numbers were released, last Thursday represented the largest single-day number of new cases announced by the county during the entire pandemic. But health officials said, again, roughly 600 of those cases were the result of a backlog in the reporting of test results. Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments, combined to confirm an additional 84 cases. That gave the county 1,941 new confirmed cases total last Thursday.

Daily testing numbers over the same period remained steady, or fell slightly, according to L.A. County’s testing chart.

In the midst of this up-and-down, on Thursday California Governor Gavin Newsom issued at statewide order mandating masks in public places.

On Friday, Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer added her voice to the chorus urging residents to wear masks:

Since May 13, Public Health has been requiring that everyone wear a cloth face covering when in contact with others not in their household. A lot of questions are raised about why this is important, especially by individuals who are not worried about becoming infected themselves. The important issue here is that we are not asking you to wear the face covering to protect yourself. We ask you to cover your mouth and nose to protect others, especially since you can be infected with COVID-19 and have no illness symptoms; this is how you keep your respiratory droplets from reaching someone else.

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