Long Beach officials on Wednesday reported another four deaths due to COVID-19, and another 193 people who tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.
A total of 156 people have died from the virus in the city, and 6,042 have tested positive.
The county meanwhile reported 44 deaths on Wednesday for a total of 3,932, and 2,758 new cases for a total of 143,009.
Hospitalizations and the positivity rate—or percentage of those tested who test positive—is now close to 10% countywide. Long Beach officials said Tuesday the city’s positivity rate is just over 15%, nearly twice what the state allows to qualify for faster reopening.
“We are in an alarming and dangerous phase in Los Angeles County,” Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health, said Wednesday. “And these numbers reflect behaviors from three weeks ago.”
Ferrer noted that though the death rate appeared to be going down in Los Angeles County, this is what health officials call a “lagging indicator”—or one that may rise later given the current rate of hospitalizations. Currently more than 2,000 people are hospitalized across the county.
She urged residents to take health orders seriously by limiting contact with people outside your immediate household and wearing a face covering in public.
“We’re not able to continue on our recovery journey without everyone doing their part,” she said. “We do need to remember that all of us play a part in protecting the capacity of our healthcare system.”