BREAKING: LA County is declaring a local and public emergency in response to 6 new reported cases of coronavirus in LA County. The county's total case count is now 7.
None of the cases are due to community spread, officials say. All were exposed to COVID-19 through close contacts (who had presumably traveled to affected countries? officials haven't said). None of the cases were related to the first case that was reported in January.
Sup. Kathryn Barger: "I want to inform the public that as the chair of the LA County Board of Supervisors I have just signed a proclamation declaring the existence of a local emergency. I want to reiterate this is not a response rooted in panic."
Barger says the emergency declarations are being made out of "an abundance of caution."
LA county Sup. Hilda Solis: "In the last 48 hours alonem the LA County dept of public health has confirmed 6 new cases of the novel coronavirus in our community."
Sup. Hilda Solis: "There’s been too much misinformation spreading around and as we expected, it's cultivating fears and leading to racial profiling ... The last thing we want to do is create more fear in our community."
LA County public health director Barbara Ferrer: "Today’s actions really just allow us to enhance work that has been ongoing."
starting today, LA County will be:
--increasing our capacity for testing at our local public health lab. LA's lab began testing a week ago for COVID-19
-ensuring that people who test positive as well as their contacts are identified and quarantined
--do daily radio briefings
--increasing our capacity for testing at our local public health lab. LA's lab began testing a week ago for COVID-19
-ensuring that people who test positive as well as their contacts are identified and quarantined
--do daily radio briefings
--posting new guidelines for schools and colleges
--continue to hold meetings with 3,500 leaders and administrators about their orgs and preparedness
--sending technical assistance teams starting today to site visits over the next week to every interim housing facility
--continue to hold meetings with 3,500 leaders and administrators about their orgs and preparedness
--sending technical assistance teams starting today to site visits over the next week to every interim housing facility
LA County public health dept head Barbara Ferrer: "We need to be prepared for more cases," both in the US and in LA County specifically.
All of LA County's six new cases were in people who either traveled to countries with outbreaks, were in contact with people who traveled to those countries or had contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases, officials say.
"Like other large jurisdictions, we anticipate more local cases," Ferre said.
Get a flu shot! say LA officials. The fewer flu patients, the less stress there is on the health system trying to care for sick people.
LA officials say we aren't there yet, but this is the time to plan for what families would do if there were big disruptions to daily life.
"This is the time for people to have a plan of what they would do if their child’s school were to close," Ferrer said.
"This is the time for people to have a plan of what they would do if their child’s school were to close," Ferrer said.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti: "We have to be prepared. We have to protect the well-being of our loved ones and our neighbors."
Garcetti said that schools and businesses also need to do their part to prepare for the situation to worsen. "This isn’t just something for government to do alone," he said.
Later today, the city of Pasadena is also going to declare a public health emergency (because it runs its own public health department independent from the LA County Dept of Public Health)
Long Beach, which also runs its own public health department, is going to declare a public health emergency as well as a local emergency due to COVID-19 later today.
One of the six cases of COVID-19 in LA County is hospitalized. All other cases are being isolated at home.
Three of the new COVID-19 cases in LA County were traveling in Northern Italy. Two are family members who had close contact with someone who was infected. Another had a job that put them in contact with travelers.
LA officials say they’re going to discuss precautions at homeless shelters and also determine how to isolate and quarantine homeless people were they to become sick.
LA officials say they had tested more than two dozen people for COVID-19 before these recent test results came back positive.
"If at any point we think there's good reason for us to be worried about extensive, extensive community transmission ... we may ask for modifications at large public events. This could be that games are played but there are no spectators."
Ferrer: I want to reassure everyone. We are not there today.
for anyone who’s interested, this is the full LA County press release on the state of emergency. doesn’t look like it’s been posted yet 
