Los Angeles County Records Highest Daily Coronavirus Death Toll

Posted on April 18, 2020

Los Angeles County has recorded its highest one day death toll from the Covid-19 coronavirus. 81 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. Los Angeles County also added 642 new cases.

Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health, says in a statement, "Today marks a very sad milestone for our County, we are reporting the highest number of COVID-19 deaths for any one day since the beginning of the pandemic, and our deepest condolences go out to each and every person grieving the loss of their loved ones. In this last week we have doubled the number of deaths that occurred among LA County residents. We are especially concerned about the overwhelming number of residents residing in our nursing homes who have passed away. I have requested additional support from our state and federal partners so we can work together to ensure that our nursing homes are as safe as possible for residents and employees. This includes asking for supplementary staffing and PPE, increased ability to test residents and employees, and improvements in infection control capacity at nursing homes."



The increase comes despite closings, restrictions and social distancing efforts in L.A. and California. The number of cases would have been much higher without these continued efforts to slow the spread.

Los Angeles County now has 12,021 cases and 576 deaths. You can find the latest information on lacounty.gov.

More from Science Space & Robots