by Steven Felschundneff steven@claremont-courier.com

Claremont’s confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus climbed again to 30 since yesterday, while the county recorded 961 new cases and 45 new deaths from COVID-19 countywide, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Public Health on Tuesday.

Thirty-five of the people who died were over the age of 65, nine were between the ages of 41 and 65. Forty-one people had underlying health conditions including 32 over the age of 65. There are still no confirmed deaths in Claremont, however, the county’s mortality data by location lags a few days behind its other data.

Since its first coronavirus update on March 4, health officials have reported 1,613 deaths and identified 33,180 positive cases across all areas of L.A. County. Ninety-two percent of people who died had underlying health conditions. As of Tuesday, a total of 5,508 people who tested positive for COVID-19 (17% of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness.

Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer issued a statement clarifying remarks she made at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting today that the stay-at-home order would likely continue for the next three months. She emphasized that the Roadmap to Recovery plan released last week would continue as long as certain benchmarks are reached in the battle to control the spread of the coronavirus.

“L.A. County is continuing its progress on the road to recovery, with planned reopening of beaches for active recreation and an expansion of permitted retail activities coming tomorrow [Wednesday]. While the Safer at Home orders will remain in place over the next few months, restrictions will be gradually relaxed under our 5-stage Roadmap to Recovery while making sure we are keeping our communities as safe as possible during this pandemic,” the statement read.