California’s death toll from COVID-19 was expected to top 50,000 on Thursday, but few would have anticipated that the toll would soar past that to 50,991 after Los Angeles County uncovered hundreds of additional deaths.
In all, the state recorded another 1,114 deaths on Thursday, including 806 from Los Angeles County that had not initially been recognized as COVID-19 deaths. Public health officials said most of these deaths happened in December and January, underscoring the devastation of the winter surge.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the deaths were overlooked at first because healthcare providers did not report them directly to LA County as COVID-19 deaths.
County officials found them after a regular review of death certificates.
“This was a period, as you all know, where very many deaths occurred across the county. And not all of them were reported to Public Health because of the volume of records,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer.
In addition to the 806 deaths from LA County, 308 more Californians died Wednesday from the virus.
The tragic development comes as the state continues to recover from the winter surge and serves as a reminder of what can happen when the virus spreads out of control.
California’s seven-day positivity rate is now 2.9 percent, the first time in months that is has fallen below 3 percent.
Another 4,965 people tested positive for the virus. The state has not seen a daily case rate that low since early November. During the winter surge, there were days when as many as 50,000 new cases were found.
As of Thursday, more than eight million doses of the vaccine have been administered across the state.