Long Beach on Tuesday reported no deaths from coronavirus, but the city did see 13 new cases, with long-term care facilities continuing to feel the brunt of the fast-moving virus.
The city overall reported 477 positive cases on Tuesday. Of those, 132 have been confirmed in both residents and staff at a total of seven long-term care facilities.
The number of deaths stood at 24, with 19 associated with long-term care facilities.
Los Angeles County on Tuesday reported 1,400 new cases, for a countywide total of 15,140. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the surge in cases is due to a backlog of reporting from over the weekend and labs that were delayed by not reporting through the county’s electronic system.
The county noted 46 more deaths for a total of 663. Ferrer said the majority of the new positive cases have been in skilled nursing facilities.
The county this week began reporting the number of cases per facility and plans to begin including the number of deaths at each facility later this week, Ferrer said.
The county’s new data on skilled nursing facilities comes amid calls for more transparency on the number of cases in nursing homes, which are hotspots for the virus because of their vulnerable populations.
On Friday, the California Department of Public Health released some data on infection rates in long-term care facilities, although the list is incomplete and does not include three Long Beach facilities that have reported cases. The list does not include deaths at facilities.
Long Beach, which has its own health department, provides names of long-term care facilities that have confirmed coronavirus cases and fatalities. However, the city releases only overall numbers for the group, making it impossible to determine whether one or more facilities could account for the bulk of infections and deaths. The city has not released the number of deaths per facility.
When asked if Long Beach would begin providing more information in light of the county’s new efforts, the city through its Joint Information Center said it is “referring all data requests on long-term care facilities to the California Department of Public Health website and the numbers they have reported there.”
In one change, the city on Tuesday began reporting coronavirus cases by ZIP code to reflect the rate per 100,000 residents.
The change came after 9th District Councilman Rex Richardson said the original data broken down only by ZIP code was misleading because it failed to note density population size and density.
The new chart shows that area code 90803 has the highest rate of cases at 59. The majority of those cases are from the skilled nursing center Broadway by the Sea, 2725 E. Broadway, which has reported 26 residents and 14 staff members who have contracted the virus, according to the state’s website.
Pacific Palms Healthcare, 1020 Termino Ave. (90804), has reported 12 staff members and less than 11 residents.
Bixby Knolls Towers, 3737 Atlantic Ave. (90807), has less than 11 staff members infected.
Royal Care Skilled Nursing Center, 2725 Pacific Ave. (90806), has reported less than 11 cases for both staff and residents.
The state website does not yet have numbers for Palmcrest Grand Assisted Living and Long Beach Healthcare Center, which are both in the 90807 area code.