by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

Claremont had another jump in confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24-hour period as the recent surge in cases and hospitalizations countywide continues.

Claremont now has 155 cumulative cases, an increase of 4.5 percent from Friday and 27 percent from a week ago. The county is now reporting three cases in unincorporated areas of Claremont which include the Padua Hills area and certain neighborhoods above Base Line Road.

A second institutional outbreak in Claremont has appeared at Western Assemblies Home on Berkeley Avenue. The residential care facility has a relatively small outbreak with two staff members and two residents testing positive, and unfortunately one person has died. Claremont’s other institutional outbreak at Country Villa Claremont Healthcare Center, has stabilized with 16 staff and 23 residents with COVID-19. Three people affiliated with Country Villa Claremont have died, however, the county’s records do not indicate how many of these deaths are among staff or residents. Confirmed deaths in Claremont is now at three.

In Saturday’s news bulletin, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 57 deaths and 2,916 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 countywide. Over the past week the county has averaged 2,500 cases a day and recorded its highest number of cases in a single day—4,015—on July 6, and its second highest—3,187—July 3.

This is the fourth day in a row that there have been more than 50 deaths in the county, including July 8 when 65 people succumbed to the disease. The county reports that the seven day moving average has not increased but has remained at just 24 over the past two weeks.

Of the 51 people who passed away (excluding Long Beach and Pasadena,) 37 were over the age of 65, 11 were between 41 and 65, and three people were between 18 and 40. Forty-three people had underlying health conditions including 32 people over the age of 65, eight people between the ages of 41 and 65, and all three of those between ages 18 and 40. Four deaths were reported by the city of Long Beach and two deaths reported by the city of Pasadena.

There are more than 2,000 people currently hospitalized in L.A. County with 27 percent in the ICU and 18 percent on ventilators. This remains substantially higher than the 1,350 to 1,450 daily hospitalizations observed four weeks ago.

Since its first report on March 4, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has identified 130,242 cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County, and 3,793 deaths.

There are 318,760 cumulative cases in California and 7,027 deaths, according to the Los Angeles Times’ coronavirus tracker. The doubling rate for the county is 33 days. Los Angeles County continues to have the largest outbreak in the state, however, it now accounts for about 40 percent of cumulative cases down from more than 55 percent earlier in the pandemic.

In neighboring counties the virus is spreading quickly according to data from each county’s public health website and the Times’ coronavirus tracker.

Our nearest neighbor, San Bernardino County, has reported 304 deaths and 18,912 cumulative cases. The county recorded 637 cases in the past 24 hours and states that case totals are doubling every 19.9 days. Riverside county has 537 deaths and 24,765 cases and a doubling rate of 21.9 days (Riverside does not report daily counts on the weekends). Orange County has 421 deaths, 23,901 cases, including 1,251 today, and a doubling rate of 11.8 days.