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Manhattan Beach Records 5th Death from COVID-19

Sep 01, 2020 11:16PM ● By Jeanne Fratello
Manhattan Beach hit a sad milestone on September 1, with its 5th reported death from COVID-19. Nevertheless, the city continues to have low numbers of coronavirus cases, with only six new cases reported in Manhattan Beach in the past week.

As with previous deaths, the county of Los Angeles has not released any further information about the deceased, citing HIPAA health privacy laws.

The city of Manhattan Beach now stands at 315 total cases since the pandemic began, along with the 5 deaths.

County Has Made Progress, But Widespread Transmission Remains


In a statement, the L.A. County Department of Health noted that the county has made encouraging progress in all the key indicators the past month. The percent of positive tests appears to indicate that the county is moving in the right direction: On July 31, the 7-day test positivity rate was 8.6%; whereas by August 31, the 7-day positivity rate was 4.7%, a decrease of 45% in one month.

In that same period, the county’s daily hospitalizations decreased by 48%, from 2,220 on July 31 to 1,043 on August 31. The 7-day average of new cases has also declined steadily over the past month. On July 31 the 7-day average of new cases was 2,883 and on August 31 that number was 1,309, a decrease of 55%.

On Friday, the state announced a new tiered framework to capture more easily the extent of community transmission in counties across the state and will use this tiered system to guide possible sector re-openings for each county to consider. That said, the ultimate decisions about sector re-openings will remain under the purview of the local health officer orders that are developed in consultation with the county's Board of Supervisors.

L.A. County is currently in Tier 1, meaning that there continues to be a widespread transmission of the virus in the county. The current number of new cases per day per 100,000 people is 13.1, nearly double the threshold for this tier, which is less than seven new cases per day per 100,000 population. And even though L.A. County's current test positivity rate of 5% puts the county in Tier 2 (Red) for this metric, when the two metrics fall in different tiers, the state places counties in the most restrictive tier; hence, L.A. County, like most counties in California, has been placed in Tier 1. The county's path forward for recovery depends on everyone being able to reduce community transmission significantly so children and teachers can get back to their classrooms, and more people can get back to their jobs with as much safety as possible.

“We are sad to report today that more Angelenos have lost their lives to COVID-19, and their loved ones are in our hearts as they mourn,” said Barbara Ferrer, the L.A. County director of public health. “As we look at the possibility of re-opening more businesses and, eventually, schools, there is a lot at stake. Increased numbers of people being around one another can result in more transmission of COVID-19, at a time where we need to be doubling down on our efforts to slow the spread. Our past weekend inspections demonstrated that 20% of restaurants and 17% of markets are still not in compliance with the health officer orders. This does not help us get our numbers down.”

All residents are being asked to observe a safe and socially distant Labor Day weekend, while heeding the lessons learned from the spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths that occurred after the previous holidays.

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