Biosecurity

Half of California’s confirmed coronavirus patients are younger than 50, Newsom says

As Los Angeles County announced the death of a teenager from possible coronavirus complications on Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned that California’s young people have been disproportionately testing positive for the virus.

Half of the more than 2,000 Californians who’ve tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are between the ages of 18 and 49, Newsom said in his daily evening Facebook Live briefing.

About a fourth of the state’s confirmed coronavirus patients are between the age of 50 to 64, and another quarter were 65 or older.

“Young people can and will be impacted by this virus,” Newsom said, urging the state’s younger residents to stay home to avoid spreading the virus.

Officials still are investigating the circumstances surrounding the teenager’s death. The Los Angeles County Public Health department said Tuesday afternoon that while the teenager’s early tests came back positive for COVID-19, it is a “complex” case and “there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality.”

Still, the death “underscores the enormity of the challenge in front of us, this health crisis, and how it can impact anybody and everybody,” Newsom said. “It is a reminder to everybody to take this seriously.”