Note on the data you see when clicking on a bubble: Confirmed cases include presumptive positive cases | Recovered cases outside China are estimates based on local media reports, and may be substantially lower than the true number | Active cases = total confirmed - total recovered - total deaths.

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Jump to: CALIFORNIA | WORLDWIDE | SOCAL COUNTIES | ANALYSIS

WHERE WE STAND

The U.S. yesterday overtook China for the highest total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world, and by late morning had surged to just over 104,661. In all, more than 597,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide. Italy has now surpassed China for the second highest totals.

In L.A. County, confirmed cases have more than tripled in the past six days, which health officials attribute in part to wide testing. The county is now reporting more than 1,460 cases and which 22% of patients have required hospitalization.

And the local mortality rate continues to tick up. Earlier in the week, it was 1%, then 1.6% yesterday and is now 1.8%. That rate is higher than the nationwide average and significantly higher than what we experience with annual flu cases. Keep in mind, it partially reflects the who is being tested at this point.

The county reported 257 new confirmed cases today. That includes five new COVID-19 related deaths.

WORLDWIDE

The U.S. is among a number of countries experiencing large-scale outbreaks. The map at the top of this post shows cumulative confirmed cases, deaths and recoveries and is updated in near real-time throughout the day. Zoom out to see more of the world.

As of 8:45 p.m. Friday, here are the total confirmed cases for the 10 countries currently facing the worst outbreaks:

104,661 United States

86,498 Italy 81,946 China 65,719 Spain 50,871 Germany 33,411 France 32,332 Iran 14,751 United Kingdom 12,928 Switzerland 9,478 Korea, South

These numbers are changing rapidly and experts have warned that confirmed cases are far under the actual total of infected individuals. For more detail check the full tracker, which includes death tolls and projections of cases on the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering site. Engineers there are collecting data from:

IN CALIFORNIA

Statewide, our friends on the L.A. Times data desk are tracking cases in California by surveying "numbers released by the dozens of local health agencies across the state." As of 9:48 a.m. Friday, the newspaper is reporting California has:

4,905 c onfirmed cases

onfirmed cases 102 deaths

[Note: If you hit a paywall on the full tracker, please consider subscribing. They have a $1 for eight weeks special. We don't have a paywall but we do count on member support to run our newsroom.]

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AT A GLANCE

Health officials here continue to stress that they are seeing most cases in people under the age of 65. L.A. County's Public Health director Barbara Ferrer has said 80% of the cases have been people between 18-65, and 42% have been people between 18-40.

Earlier this week, when the local mortality rate was at 1%, Ferrer told us:

"You can imagine if we have thousands and thousands and thousands of people infected, then 1% becomes a large number. And every single person who dies like that's a story, that's a loved one. That's a person who other people care about and they're gonna miss."

Current as of Friday

LA COUNTY

1,482 cases

cases 26 deaths*

* Note: This includes new cases released by Long Beach after the county's daily update. See more from L.A. County

Below is current as of Thursday updates:

ORANGE COUNTY

321 cases

3 death

* More from Orange County

RIVERSIDE COUNTY

151 cases

cases 8 deaths

* More from Riverside County

VENTURA COUNTY

61 cases

cases 1 death

* More from Ventura County

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY

55 cases

cases 3 death

* More from San Bernardino County

FLATTEN THE CURVE

As new cases continue to be confirmed, Californians are a week into "safer at home" and "social distancing" orders. Last Thursday, state and county officials ordered the vast majority of Californians to strictly limit interactions with other people, wash hands frequently, and stay six feet away from others.

Remember, the goal of social distancing is to "flatten the curve" of COVID-19's spread.

Source: CDC, Drew Harris (Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR)

The more we can slow the rate of infection, the less overwhelmed the hospital system will be.

Here's a look at nine scenarios over six, nine, and 12 months from our friends at ProPublica:

(Courtesy of ProPublica)

And here's the impact on California hospitals:

(Courtesy of ProPublica)

SOME STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT COVID-19



We're all living through this extraordinary and frightening pandemic. The vast majority of our newsroom has been working from home (here's some advice on that) since March 11 to bring you calm, helpful reporting. We are answering your questions and taking more.

We're here to help. And if you can help support that effort financially, we'd be grateful.