Long Beach reported 14 additional deaths on Friday due to COVID-19, adding to a high of 77 just this week—which is close to 12% of the city’s total coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began in March.

New cases of the virus, however, continue to fall, both in the city and the county. Long Beach on Friday reported 225 new cases, the lowest daily total since Nov. 20, which is around the time the deadly spike of the virus began.

Los Angeles County reported 7,112 new COVID infections, and an additional 228 deaths. So far, countywide, 16,332 people have died of the virus.

According to figures provided by the state, there were 5,669 people hospitalized in the county due to COVID-19, including 1,498 in intensive care. That was down from 5,855 total patients on Thursday, continuing a downward trend that began in early January when the figure topped 8,000.

Health officials have warned that daily deaths will likely remain high for the rest of the month, even as case numbers and hospital admissions continue to fall. Deaths are considered a lagging indicator, meaning they naturally follow increases in hospitalizations.

While the case numbers have improved, they still remain dramatically high. Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s health services director, noted this week that while new COVID hospital admissions have dropped to about 500 per day from the recent high of about 700 per day, the current rate is still double that seen in the virus surge that occurred last summer.

Dr. Muntu Davis, the county health officer, on Friday stressed the need for all businesses and residents to adhere strictly to infection-control requirements, saying people shouldn’t be lulled into complacency by new economic reopenings.

“Nobody wants to see this number going back or the lines going back up in terms of our cases, our hospitalizations or even our deaths,” he said. “We can’t relax. Because if we don’t take precautions, in two weeks we’re going to see cases rise again.”

The county’s COVID-19 transmission rate—reflecting the average number of people a COVID patient infects with the virus—also continues to decline, estimated Wednesday at 0.85, down from 0.94 last week. Keeping that number below 1.0 is considered critical to slowing the spread of the virus.

City News Service contributed to this report.