LA County reports 50 new coronavirus cases, including a new case in Manhattan Beach

Map of Coronavirus cases in Los Angeles County. Source: Los Angeles County Department of Health

The South Bay has ten confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. Image courtesy of South Bay Cities

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tuesday confirmed 50 new cases of novel coronavirus countywide, bringing the total to 144. The announcement was the single biggest one day increase since the outbreak arrived in LA County, doubling the previous day’s 25 new cases, and likely did not include four new cases reported in the South Bay this afternoon. 

Barbara Ferrer, Los Angeles County Public Health Director, said the rate of increase comes as no surprise. 

“I want to remind everyone that we anticipated we would see new cases, and we will continue to see new cases as we increase our capacity to test,” Ferrer said. “And as there are more people who are infected, it means there are more people that will get infected. This does not mean that our efforts at social distancing are not working; if you look across the world it generally takes between three and four weeks for us to see the fruit of our labor.  So we all need to continue to do all the social distancing measures that we have implemented until we see that we have in fact peaked, and we start seeing less and less cases.”

That peak, Ferrer said, is most likely weeks away. She emphasized that the incubation period for COVID-19 is 14 days. 

“Which means, again, that the efforts we do today didn’t protect someone from an exposure that happened yesterday,” Ferrer said. “But those exposures may not result in positive cases for up to two weeks from the date of exposure.” 

The County’s new numbers include one new case in Manhattan Beach, bringing the total for the city to four. The numbers showed a puzzling decrease in the South Bay generally, from 10 yesterday to nine today. Two cities that showed two cases each yesterday —  Torrance and Inglewood — dropped to a single case in the County’s tallies. Other cities in the South Bay with cases included single positive tests in Carson, Gardena, and San Pedro. 

Kensington Redondo Beach, an assisted living facility, today announced one staff member had tested positive; the County’s numbers did not list any cases in Redondo. Three cases were reported in Palos Verdes, including two members from the Palos Verdes Country Club and one student from Palos Verdes High School; both organizations released statements regarding the cases. The County tally didn’t show any cases in Palos Verdes.  

Additionally, Torrance Memorial Medical Center today released a statement indicating three people had tested positive at the hospital. The patients are in home isolation, under the care of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In the first case, the person had been in contact with someone who had been confirmed to be infected with COVID-19. The second and third cases had recently been on a cruise, according to the press release, which matches a description of the statement released by the PV Country Club. 

Inquiries with the Department of Public Health regarding these apparent discrepancies are under review by DPH officials. 

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