by Steven Felschundneff steven@claremont-courier.com

During its daily briefing the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced Friday that it is extending the “Safer at Home” order shuttering all but essential businesses and requiring people to stay at home, except for necessary trips, until at least May 15.

In addition to extending the original order’s timeline, the new directive will require residents to wear protective masks in public and when in close proximity to others. The order also requires essential businesses to provide cloth face coverings for all of their employees to wear while performing duties that involve contact with other employees or the public. Businesses must also post their physical distancing plans. The public face covering order goes into effect countywide at midnight on April 15.

A news release sent by public health officials Friday afternoon reports a tenth confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in the city Claremont.

Since the public health update on Thursday there have been 18 new deaths and 475 new cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. Ten people who died were over the age of 65; seven people between the ages of 41 and 65, and one person was between the ages of 18 and 40. One death was reported by the City of Long Beach, and one death by the City of Pasadena. Over the past 48 hours, there have been 900 new cases reported.

To date, the county has identified 8,430 cases across all areas of L.A. County, including 241 deaths. As of Friday a total of 2,043 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (24% of positive cases) were hospitalized at some point during their illness.

“We’re extending the health officer orders—which, as you know, require a fair amount of distancing and continue to keep in place closures of non-essential business—not because everything everyone has been doing isn’t working…it’s because it is working. We know it’s effective, but we still have a ways to go in order to both protect the lives of people who live in our county and to make sure that our health care system remains fully able to service all who need their care,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the Department of Public Health.