Long Beach officials are working to sort out a large chunk of positive coronavirus cases that are attributed to a backlog of tests from a single private lab, Mayor Robert Garcia said Friday.

The number of positive cases jumped by 57 on Friday, bringing the city’s total to 1,214 positive cases. This is the third day the city has seen an apparent sudden influx in numbers attributed to that lab.

Garcia said city health officials hope to be able to decipher when each positive case actually happened so they can add it to those daily totals. The city also later added that there is a high demand for testing, so numbers will continue to grow.

“I’m hoping by next week we’ll have had this all figured out and the issues with this lab figured out,” Garcia said.

There were no additional deaths reported on Friday and 56 people are currently hospitalized.

A total of 345 cases are connected with 22 long-term care facilities.

Garcia also noted that the city has opened all of the businesses that are legally allowed to open under state law as of now, reminding residents that the state health orders supercede county and city health orders, so Long Beach could not reopen any faster, even if local officials thought it was safe to do so.

 

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