The number of cases, hospitalizations, and death rates continue to worsen since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a health official of the Los Angeles County said.

L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the stay-at-home order may return due to the worsening number of cases, while business closures stay for an undetermined period of time.

"There's too much unknown and there are lots of things that could happen that could put us in much worse shape, including, you know, some serious mutations of this virus that make it more dangerous. So I would never be the person that's going to say, 'Absolutely, out of the question, we can never go back to Safer At Home'," she was quoted in a report.

The county's Department of Public Health has confirmed 2,667 new cases of coronavirus, and 51 more deaths on Friday. L.A. has a total of 127,358 coronavirus cases with 3,783 deaths.

Around 1,995 people were hospitalized, of which 26 percent are being treated in intensive care units, while 17 percent on ventilators. The department has already increased its contract tracers to 1,500.

"Prior to the pandemic, Public Health had approximately 200 staff, who did contact tracing as part of their regular duties, with a focus on tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases and other acute communicable and vaccine preventable diseases such as measles," the health department said in a statement.

San Gabriel Valley Area Cases

A total of 17,431 cases of COVID-19 and 539 deaths related to coronavirus have been recorded in San Gabriel Valley area as of July 8, according to the L.A. and Pasadena health department.

Outside San Gabriel Valley, in Whittier and its nearby communities, there are a total of 10,461 coronavirus cases and 238 deaths. The Burbank-Glendale area has 2,449 cases and 169 deaths.

The county is still investigating 3,160 possible cases and 14 deaths. The officials said there might be more people infected with COVID-19, but have yet to be tested due to limited coronavirus test kits.

Los Angeles Apparel Closure

Meanwhile, county public health officials have ordered the closure of Los Angeles Apparel's manufacturing facilities in South Los Angeles after more than 300 workers tested positive for COVID-19 and four have already died as of Friday.

"Business owners and operators have a corporate moral and social responsibility to their employees and their families to provide a safe work environment that adheres to all of the health officer directives - this responsibility is important, now more than ever, as we continue to fight this deadly virus," Ferrer said in a separate statement.

Public health officials said three workers from the plant died in early June, and one more died early this month. The health officials said investigators earlier asked the company for a list of all employees to compare test results, but it was not immediately provided to them.

The company has only sent the list on July 4 and the names of the employees was even incomplete. By then, 198 positive cases have already been reported.

The company was also found to ignore distancing requirements and infection control protocols.

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