LA County Public Health Dept. COVID-19 Armenian Update- 5/27/2020

LOS ANGELES – With 53 new deaths in the past 24 hours, and a total of 2,195 deaths and 48,700 identified positive COVID-19 (Coronavirus) cases in Los Angeles County to date.

LA County Department of Public Health – Environmental Health Specialist Nona Oganisyan, issued a message in Armenian today during the daily press briefing, urging the Armenian-American community to continue following safe practices to avoid getting infected along with updated statistical data.

The new Health Officer Order issued yesterday, called Safer at Work and in the Community, allows for the reopening of houses of worship, office worksites, in-store shopping at retail establishments, including indoor malls and shopping centers, flea markets, swap meets and drive-in movie theaters. Houses of worship can operate at 25% capacity or with a maximum of 100 people, whichever is lower, and retail establishments can operate at 50% capacity. Pools, hot tubs and saunas that are in a multi-unit residence or part of a homeowners’ association can also open. Political protests with limited numbers of participants are also allowed. This Order aligns the County with the State’s Orders.

The order calls for everyone to follow distancing and infection control protocols and wear a clean cloth face covering that securely covers both your nose and mouth when in contact with other people not in your household. Public and private gatherings of any number of people outside of a single household unit are still not permitted except for public protests and faith-bases services as described in the Order. The Health Officer Order continues to require specific higher-risk businesses to remain closed and prohibit dining in at restaurants. Restaurants are still allowed to serve food to customer via delivery, take-out or drive-thru.

The latest figures, according to the LA County Public Health Department website, the city of Glendale continues as one of the highest affected with 952 positive COVID-19 cases, and 78 deaths to date. Other areas with high populations of Armenian-Americans, include Burbank (393 cases), East Hollywood (218 cases), Hollywood (264 cases), Little Armenia (190 cases), Montebello (357 cases), North Hollywood (660 cases), Northridge (314 cases), Pasadena (883 cases), Sunland (144 cases), and Tujunga (116 cases). For a complete up to date list of COVID-19 posit cases by cities and institutions, visit: http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/

Currently, LA County is in stage two of the five-stage Roadmap to Recovery and until the final stage five is reached, Health Officer Orders and directives will continue to ensure that we slow spread of COVID-19 to prevent an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases at healthcare facilities.

The City of Los Angeles, is providing free COVID-19 testing to all Los Angeles City residents, whether or not you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Priority for the same or next day testing will still be given to people with symptoms, such as fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Testing is also prioritized for certain critical front-line workers who interact with the public while working. All Los Angeles County residents can find out if they are eligible for a test and schedule an appointment at a drive-up mobile testing site. Visit https://covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/ to see if you qualify for testing.

An interactive dashboard is available that provides an overview on COVID-19 testing, cases and deaths along with maps and graphs showing testing, cases and death data by community poverty level, age, sex and race/ethnicity. To view Public Health’s COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard, visit:
http://dashboard.publichealth.lacounty.gov/covid19_surveillance_dashboard/.

The best protection against COVID-19 is to wash your hands frequently, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, self-isolate if you are sick, practice physical distancing (especially by staying at home) and wear a clean face covering when in contact with others from outside your household. People who have underlying health conditions remain at much greater risk for serious illness from COVID-19, so it will continue to be very important for the County’s vulnerable residents to stay at home as much as possible, to have groceries and medicine delivered, and to call their providers immediately if they have even mild symptoms.