California is on pace to reach a grim new milestone Friday in the fight against the coronavirus, as the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 nears 1,000.
The rising death toll comes even as the growth of coronavirus cases appears to be slowing in the state. Officials have cautiously credited strict stay-at-home orders for the deceleration but say the trend could reverse if the restrictions are lifted too soon.
Coronavirus-linked fatalities reached another one-day high in Los Angeles County on Thursday as health officials confirmed 52 additional deaths for a total of 457. It marked the third straight day the county has seen a record number of COVID-19 deaths, according to the county’s tally.
L.A. County officials also confirmed 399 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total to 10,854. Although the number of deaths has risen day over day, the number of new COVID-19 cases has trended downward this week.
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Barbara Ferrer, L.A. County’s public health director, said there is a natural lag time when it comes to deaths, as “sometimes people can be in the hospital for a few days before they actually pass away,” and noted that other areas have seen a similar trend.
“You tend to see the deaths continue to rise after your cases may have leveled off,” she said.
Still, she called the rising death toll “distressing and a stark reminder of the devastation caused by COVID-19.”
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While California’s coronavirus crisis began in the Bay Area, Los Angeles County now accounts for an outsized number of deaths despite its large size.
The county represents a quarter of California’s population but has been the site of almost half of the deaths due to COVID-19, a Times data analysis found. The five-county Southern California region accounts for roughly 60% of the deaths in California due to the coronavirus, even though it makes up just 48% of California’s population.
Those numbers led to California recording its worst one-day death total on Wednesday, with 101 new fatalities.
Despite the continued rise in deaths, daily tallies of new cases in California suggest the spread of the virus is slowing. So does the number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, which has remained between 1,100 and 1,200 since April 7.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that 1,191 Californians were in intensive care as of Wednesday — a 1.4% day-to-day increase — but that the overall number of patients hospitalized ticked down by almost 1% to 3,141.
“That’s good news, but again, I caution everybody: One day’s data does not make a trend,” he said.
L.A. County officials have said that while strict stay-at-home orders have slowed the spread of coronavirus, they remain worried about the possibility of more outbreaks. They forecast last week that up to 30% of the county’s 10 million residents could be infected by midsummer without more behavioral changes, such as reducing shopping trips.
