Families Urged To Reconsider Nursing Homes Due To Coronavirus

LOS ANGELES, CA — The number of people dying from the new coronavirus in Los Angeles County over a 24-hour period is now double what is was a week ago. County health officials reported 22 more fatalities Tuesday. The climbing death toll was largely anticipated, and it goes to the heart of the frantic effort to get residents to stay home this week despite temptations to go shopping and attend family gatherings for the Easter and Passover.

Decisions Southlanders make this is the week could go far in determining just how bad the outbreak will be when it peaks across the Southland in May, according to experts. The 22 new fatalities increased the number of deaths in the county to 169. Several of the deaths involved outbreaks at nursing homes, prompting the county's leading health official to recommend families consider bringing their loved ones home from institutional facilities to care for them.

County health officials also reported 550 new cases Tuesday, increasing the countywide total to 6,910. Health officials reittered calls for residents to stay resolute about following shutdown orders to stave off the kind of crisis currently overwhelming hospitals and morgues in New York.

At the same time, health officials are beginning to parse the varying death rates among different ethnicities in Los Angeles. Preliminary data seems to point toward black residents having a slightly higher death rate from the virus than other ethnic group.

It may reflect the fact that wealthier communities have increased access to testing.

"When we look at these numbers by the total population of each group, African-Americans have a slightly higher rate of death than other races and ethnicities, and we will be watching this closely as we gather more information about the remaining 43% of people who have passed away," Ferrer said.

Barbara Ferrer, director of the county Department of Public Health, stressed that the ethnic data on the county's fatalities is very preliminary, noting that race/ethnicity data was unavailable on 43% of the 169 people who have died in the county from the virus.

For the 93 fatalities with available information, 28% were Latinx, 27% were white, 19% were Asian, 17% were black and 9% were other ethnicities.

Ferrer conceded that while testing has been increasing across the county, data indicates that wealthier communities have much better access to the tests.

"People who are living in wealthier communities have had, in fact, better access to testing and have been tested more than people living in communities where income levels are much lower," Ferrer said. "We will be producing a complete report on what we know about access to lab testing by early next week."

County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the county is working to expand testing access in all areas, noting that a drive-through facility will open Wednesday at East Los Angeles College.

"While not every city will get a drive-through testing site, we're ensuring that there's testing capacity in every region of the county," Solis said. "And I'm also concerned about the reports coming out of other cities that show significant racial disparities in COVID-19 cases and fatalities. We must collect better data to identify and address the disparities in L.A. County."

Of the 22 new deaths reported in the county, 16 people were over 65 and had underlying health conditions, Ferrer said. the remaining six were between 41 and 65, and five of them had existing health problems.

The county's mortality rate again crept upward, reaching 2.4%. About 14% of the 35,300 people who have been tested in the county turned out to be positive, but Ferrer again said that number is artificially inflated because some labs have not fully reported numbers of negative tests.

Ferrer said there are now 121 institutional settings — such as nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, shelters, jails and prisons — that have had at least one case. Those institutions have had a total of 552 cases and 37 deaths. Thirty cases have been reported in jail facilities, although only one involved an inmate, while the others were among staffers.

Almost all of the deaths in institutional settings occurred in nursing homes or assisted living centers. One such facility -- The Kensington in Redondo Beach -- has been particularly hard hit, with four deaths among residents and 22 positive cases among staff and residents. Ferrer noted that the Kensington was one of the first institutional settings to report an outbreak.

She said people who have relatives in such nursing facilities may want to consider bringing them home, if they have the ability to care for them.

Ferrer said there are 10 confirmed cases among the county's homeless population -- down from 12 she reported Monday. One of the infected people may have been living in a municipal homeless shelter, but she said health officials are still investigating the case.

Health officials have been warning that this week could be one of the most dramatic for increases in coronavirus cases, mainly based on the increased availability of testing but also due to the ability of infected people to pass the virus to multiple others before they show any symptoms of the illness or are even aware they have it.

On Monday, Ferrer urged people to avoid leaving home as much as possible, even suggesting residents forgo trips to the grocery store or other shops. In that same vein, she said Tuesday people should not be planning to attend religious gatherings this week for Passover or Easter.

She said residents should take advantage of whatever method available to maintain contact with friends and relatives, but said anyone suffering from depression or other mental health issues can contact the county's support hotline at 800-854-7771. She said anyone facing issues of domestic violence during the stay-at-home orders should avail themselves of county shelters and law enforcement. The county has a domestic violence hotline at 800-978-3600, and information on resources is available at www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/dvcouncil.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.