County reports 60 new COVID deaths over past 4 days

Los Angeles County reported 60 new COVID-19 deaths from a four-day period ending Tuesday, along with more than 2,700 new coronavirus infections.

The county Department of Public Health logged 20 COVID19-related deaths on Saturday, 18 on Sunday, 12 on Monday and 10 on Tuesday. The numbers do not translate to deaths that actually occurred on those days but when the deaths were officially reported and logged by the county.

The county doesn't report coronavirus cases or deaths on weekends and didn't report that data on Monday because of Presidents Day.

The new fatalities lifted the county's overall virus-related death toll to 35,603. The majority of people who die with COVID-19 are older adults or those have an underlying health condition, such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension.

The county also reported 1,280 new coronavirus infections for Saturday, 680 for Sunday, 425 for Monday and 378 for Tuesday. The county's cumulative total from throughout the pandemic rose to 3,697,051.

The daily case numbers released by the county are undercounts of actual virus activity in the county because of people who use at-home tests and don't report the results, and others who don't test at all.

The seven-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 6.5% as of Tuesday, roughly the same as the past week.

An updated number of coronavirus patients in Los Angeles County hospitals was not immediately available. As of Saturday, 714 such patients were hospitalized in the county, with 82 being treated in intensive care units.

Some of the patients were hospitalized for other reasons and learned they had the virus upon admission.

Touting the benefits of the latest COVID-19 vaccine, county health officials said Friday that older residents inoculated with the bivalent booster shot are dramatically less likely to be hospitalized or die if they are infected with the virus.

Unvaccinated adults who are at least 80 years old were more than three times as likely to be hospitalized and more than 51/2 times as likely to die than those who had received the bivalent booster, according to the county. For those age 65 to 79, unvaccinated people were 12 times more likely to be hospitalized than those with the latest booster shot, and nearly 16 times more likely to die, according to the Department of Public Health.

The vaccine does not prevent people from contracting or spreading the virus, but, health officials say, it reduces the likelihood of severe symptoms or death for those who are infected.