Health officials reported 321 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, matching the largest single-day jump in the city on record.
That record had been previously set on June 30, but the health department on that day noted that the number represented cases reported in the two days prior. Officials didn’t provide a possible reason for the jump this time, but in a press conference on Monday noted that the city had been ramping up testing capabilities from performing 1,000 tests on average each day, to up to 1,400 tests per day.
Mayor Robert Garcia noted in that conference that the city’s positivity rate had fallen from its all-time high, going from 15.2% last week to 14.1% this week when taken as a seven-day average.
A total of 6,843 cases have been reported in the city since the beginning of the pandemic.
In all, 160 Long Beach residents have died from COVID-19, including one new death reported Tuesday, which was a woman in her 60s. City officials said that all the people who have died had underlying health conditions.
The city has gone about a week without reporting any new deaths connected to long-term care facilities or nursing homes. This is a switch from earlier in the pandemic when a majority of COVID-19 deaths had been in those facilities. Health officials have been saying that they are seeing more community spread and hospitalizations in younger people, announcing Monday that the median age for new COVID-19 cases is 33.
Officials also reported a total of 106 Long Beach residents are hospitalized, up from 104 on Monday. Today’s count is the highest number of residents hospitalized Long Beach has reported on the day of, but the number is frequently revised up, at one point reaching 116 on July 12.
Los Angeles County has also seen record numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations this week, with 2,218 people currently hospitalized with the disease. Of this number, 26% are in intensive care and 18% are on ventilators. The county also reported 50 new deaths and 2,741 new cases on Tuesday. Of the new cases today, 57% are in people under the age of 41.