Los Angeles County surpassed 3,000 COVID-19 deaths Thursday as more sectors of the economy prepared to reopen.
The county also reported 1,063 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing its total to more than 78,000.
That came a day after both the county and the state recorded their largest single-day totals of new coronavirus infections. California reported 4,291 new cases Wednesday, with 2,129 of them in L.A. County. Health officials said the total was fueled by a backlog of test results that accounted for roughly 600 of the new L.A. County infections.
Amid the continued rise in case counts, the county announced that a slew of businesses could reopen Friday as the region continues to relax stay-at-home orders put in place in March to slow the virus’ spread.
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The list includes bars, wineries, breweries and tasting rooms, personal care services — including esthetician, skin care, cosmetology, electrology and nail salons, body art and tattoo parlors, microblading and piercing shops and massage studios — card rooms, satellite wagering facilities and racetracks without spectators.
In the face of the reopenings, Gov. Gavin Newsom took the dramatic step Thursday of ordering all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings.
“Simply put, we are seeing too many people with faces uncovered — putting at risk the real progress we have made in fighting the disease,” he said in a statement. “California’s strategy to restart the economy and get people back to work will only be successful if people act safely and follow health recommendations.”
Officials have attributed the rising case counts in L.A. County to increased testing. They’ve said that the county appears to be doing well by other measures, such as the overall positivity rate, which has been holding at around 8%, and the average number of daily hospitalizations, which continues to decline slightly.
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Still, they continue to closely monitor those metrics, as a rise in the former could indicate increased community transmission, and a rise in the latter could signal that the healthcare system is at risk of being overwhelmed.
Statewide, hospitalizations have remained relatively flat for the last six weeks.
But some areas have seen increases. Last week, there were an average of 91 people hospitalized per day with confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections in Ventura County, the highest number since early April. That’s a 75% increase from each of the previous two weeks, a Times analysis found.
Orange County and the San Joaquin Valley have seen 76% and 45% increases in intensive care unit hospitalizations, respectively, over the last six weeks.
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State officials are monitoring areas experiencing elevated disease transmission or increasing hospitalizations or both in 10 counties: Contra Costa, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Riverside, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus and Tulare. The state also is monitoring L.A. County for the possibility of elevated transmission.
Times staff writers Phil Willon, Rong-Gong Lin II and Iris Lee contributed to this report.
