57% of new cases of COVID-19 in LA County are in people under 41 years old

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health confirmed 50 new deaths and 2,741 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, July 21. Of the latest positive cases, 57% occurred in people under the age of 41 years old.

The numbers continue to confirm that younger people are driving new infections and the spread of COVID-19, the department said.

Public Health has identified 161,673 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 4,154 deaths since March.

Currently, 2,218 individuals are currently hospitalized, with 26% of these people being confirmed cases in the ICU and 18% confirmed cases on ventilators. Tuesday marked the third consecutive day of over 2,200 hospitalizations.

Testing results are available for over 1,559,000 individuals with 9.6% of all people testing positive.

“Every day we think of the many families experiencing the profound grief of losing a loved one to COVID-19,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of the county public health. “The tragedy of what we are witnessing is that many of our younger residents are interacting with each other and not adhering to the recommended prevention measures, while our older residents continue to experience the results of this increased spread with the worst health outcomes, including death.”

Of the 50 new deaths, 34 people who passed away (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena) were over the age of 65 years old and 15 people who died were between the ages of 41 and 65 years. Thirty-nine people had underlying health conditions, including 29 people over the age of 65 years old and 10 people between the ages of 41 to 65 years old. One death was reported by the City of Long Beach.

Ninety-two percent of people who died had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 3,867 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 47% of deaths occurred among Latino residents, 26% among White residents, 15% among Asian residents, 11% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races.

Upon further investigation, 113 cases reported earlier were not LA County residents.