While city officials are seeing some indicators that community spread of coronavirus may be slowing, they can’t be sure because of a technical error in the statewide infectious disease reporting system that caused an underreporting of COVID-19 case numbers.
Long Beach officials say they’re still seeing about 70 to 90 new cases reported each day, but they don’t know how many cases aren’t being counted yet. State officials aren’t yet sure of when the issue started, but are estimating it to be about seven to 10 days ago—right when local officials started seeing declines in new cases across California, Long Beach Health Director Kelly Colopy said. State officials also do not yet have a timeline of when the system will be fixed.
As of Thursday, Long Beach has had 8,709 total cases, up from 8,615 cases reported on Wednesday. The city is not reporting a positivity rate because it wouldn’t be accurate with the undercount of cases, Colopy said.
She noted that the city is seeing the demand at the drive-thru testing sites stabilize, which might mean fewer people are experiencing symptoms and needing to get tested.
In addition, hospitalizations of Long Beach residents are slightly down, but Colopy cautioned that it is a lagging indicator, meaning today’s hospitalizations are likely a reflection from cases spread weeks ago. In total, officials said 92 residents are hospitalized, down from 101 this time last week. The numbers of hospitalizations and deaths were not affected by the state system error.
Colopy said that the city is at its highest number of people hospitalized who live in the community, not long-term care facilities, indicating that there is still a lot of community spread.
“We do follow up with individuals when they test positive and we find that they’re getting it in gatherings with family and friends,” Colopy said.
Mayor Robert Garcia noted that hospital capacity is remaining stable at 57%, indicating that hospitals are managing space and patients well.
Officials also reported no new deaths in the city today, leaving the total number of deaths at 180. The city has reported three deaths this week, in contrast with the 14 reported last week.