City reports another fatality

Long Beach: Health officials say death brings pandemic total to 869 as case numbers continue to trend downward

Another Long Beach resident died from coronavirus-related causes, officials announced Wednesday, bringing the city’s death toll to 869.

The city also reported 22 more coronavirus cases. There have been 51,584 cases identified in Long Beach since the pandemic began.

About 49,128 people — or 95% of those who have tested positive — since have recovered.

Metrics tracking the spread and impact of the coronavirus in Long Beach continued to trend downward Wednesday, as they have since mid-January.

The city’s new daily case rate, for example, fell to 5.6 per 100,000 people from 6.5 the day prior. And the positive testing rate dipped down from 2.4% Tuesday to 2.3% Wednesday.

The number of people being treated for the virus in local hospitals, meanwhile, dropped to 70 from 72 the day prior.

Long Beach also continued to make progress in its vaccination program. The city administered 3,369 more doses from the day prior, bringing the total so far to 139,207, and 93,027 of those were first doses. So far, about 17.6% of residents have received at least one dose.

And some of those inoculations included the recently approved single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Long Beach received its first allocation of that vaccine — which included 4,100 doses — last week.

“We’re thrilled to be receiving the J&J vaccine,” Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement. “This will allow us to further strengthen our vaccine outreach and provide the opportunity to people seeking to be vaccinated with a single dose.”