by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

The city of Claremont now has 59 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one death, according to a news release from Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Countywide there were just 823 cases reported Monday and 10 deaths which is far below the average daily cases reported over the past week. The decrease in cases may reflect a reporting lag over the weekend according to public health officials.

Six people who died were over the age of 65 and three were between the ages of 41 and 65. Five people had underlying health conditions including three people over the age of 65. One death was reported by the City of Pasadena.

Locally the outbreak at Country Villa Claremont Healthcare Center has grown to nine staff members and 16 residents. One person associated with the institution has died but the county has not indicated whether it is a resident or a worker.

Los Angeles County continues to have the largest outbreak of any county in the state with 62,644 cases and 2,655 deaths. As of today, 6,923 people with COVID-19 (11 percent of positive cases) have been hospitalized at some point during their illness. There are 1,399 people currently hospitalized, 30 percent of whom are in an ICU and 21 percent are on ventilators. Eight percent of the more than 708,000 people tested in L.A. County were positive for the coronavirus.