Despite the sad news of 18 more deaths and 475 new confirmed cases of new coronavirus, Los Angeles County health officials for the second day spoke of the silver lining of trendlines that hint that stay-at-home orders are starting to “flatten the curve” of the fearsome pandemic that grips the region, during the county’s Friday, April 10 update.

The toll — which included a total of 8,430 confirmed cases and 241 deaths — came just after the county extended its “stay-at-home” orders until May 15.

The extension includes the already established shutdowns all public gatherings, beaches, trails and all non-essential businesses. As of Friday, it also includes the wearing of masks at essential businesses that remain open and elsewhere in public.

“Every day we get closer to being on the other side of this,” said L.A County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “We have a flattening of the curve in a way that is actually saving lives and allowing us to make sure our healthcare system is able to serve well those who need care.”

Friday’s totals did not include updated counts for two cities that operate their own health departments. Long Beach raised its totals to 316 cases and nine deaths. Pasadena elevated its totals to 117 cases and seven deaths.

Of the 18 new deaths announced Friday, 10 were people over the age of 65, seven were between 41 and 65, and one was between 18 and 40 years old

The new death toll again pushed the county’s mortality rate for people with the ailment higher, to near 3%, Ferrer said.

Ferrer reported 18 new cases among the county’s homeless population; two reported yesterday turned out not to be positive.

Among the confirmed cases overall, 2,043 people have been hospitalized at some point. About 20% of those hospitalized required a ventilator, officials said.

Increasingly troubling for public officials were the numbers that continued to emerge Friday from institutional centers — nursing homes, shelters, treatment clinics and correctional facilities.

Ferrer reported that 67 people who’d passed away were residents of such settings — more than a quarter of the county’s total deaths.

Nonetheless, Ferrer and her county peers focused anew Friday on the statistical signs of hope. Ferrer said the extension of stay-at-home orders should be seen as a positive sign.

It’s not because the county’s approach isn’t working, she said. “It’s because it is working,” she said. “But we still have a way to go to protect lives of people who live in our county and make sure our healthcare system remains fully able to serve all those who need their care.”

Officials’ hopeful, however guarded, optimism first began to appear on Thursday. Health officials announced another 25 deaths related to the novel coronavirus — pushing the county’s total over 200 — and another 425 people who tested positive.

That tally, however, represented roughly 1,000 new cases in the previous 48 hours — about the same rate of increase over the past week. “The data is encouraging,” Ferrer said. “We know all the sacrifices that everyone is making is in fact slowing the spread, but slowing the spread is a constant activity we have to do in the days to come. So we ask you to have some patience and continue to do what you are doing.”

Ferrer said county residents should still expect to sustain self-isolation and social-distancing measures for several more weeks. Failing to stay the course on “Safer At Home” measures could undo the progress attained, she said.

LA officials were won measures of praise this week nationwide for showing signs that social distancing measures, put in place relatively earlier than in places such as New York, could be having a noticeable impact in slowing the rate of new cases.

The number of cases at institutional settings, especially at nursing homes and assisted living facilities continued to increase. Cases have now been confirmed at 159 institutional settings, and the number of confirmed cases among staff and residents jumped to 1,062 from 716 cases the day before. Facilities that have at least three confirmed cases is deemed an outbreak, officials said.

“The more cases of COVID-19 in our community, the more outbreaks we will see at institutional settings,” said Ferrer this week, stressing that the department has been working closely with management at each facility.

The number of people hospitalized continued to tick upward on Thursday. Now roughly 24% of those who tested positive have been hospitalized, Ferrer said.

“It’s a sharp reminder that many of the people in the hospital are very ill from COVID-19,” Ferrer said. “As we’ve noted before COVID-19 does in fact cause serious illness.”

Among the county’s first responders, 29 L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies have tested positive, with 376 of staffers in quarantine and 223 who were back to work after recovering.

In the L.A. County Fire Department, there are 14 positive cases and 27 quarantined, two who are isolated at home. Twelve have come back to work.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said there have been eight enforcement actions since the beginning of ‘stay at home’ — seven citations and one arrest over violating the order.

He added that overall crime is down.

Violent crime has dipped 4.5% compared to the same time last year, and serious crime as 14.36%.

Calls for service have dropped 11%

The population of inmates in the county’s jail system has been decreased by more than 20% in efforts to help reduce spread, Villanueva said.

All told, more than 40,600 people have been tested in the county, but Ferrer said testing for the virus was still limited. About 15% of those tested have been found to be positive for the virus.

Ferrer announced a new antibody testing effort taking place Friday and Saturday, in conjunction with USC. The “community surveillance” tests more than 1,000 randomly selected people from across the county at selected locations. Such testing is different than the testing that has been built out at sites across the county over the last few weeks. Here, people are tested for antibodies to the virus, not the virus itself. This testing can detect current an past infections among people, and determine if they ever had the virus, whether or not they ever became sick.

The study — which will be ongoing — cannot determine if people are were infected are now immune. That study will come later. But what it can do, is give more evidence about gender, age, race and ethnicity patterns during the outbreak, allowing researchers to “better understand how COVID-19 is showing up in our communities,” Ferrer said.