Coronavirus news update: Thursday, March 26

Here are some of the top headlines for stories on coronavirus in Southern California and beyond for Thursday, March 26.

Health officials on Thursday confirmed nine additional deaths and 421 new cases in Los Angeles County, bringing the county's total to 1,216 cases. County health director Barbara Ferrer said two previously reported deaths are no longer being included in the county's death toll.

In one of the first federal cases of its kind during the coronavirus pandemic, a Southern California man has been arrested for allegedly claiming to have developed a cure for COVID-19 and soliciting investments in his company, according to the FBI. Authorities say Keith Lawrence Middlebrook, 53, claimed to have developed a patent-pending cure and a treatment to prevent coronavirus infection.

A woman asked her apartment complex to sing "Happy Birthday" as a social-distance friendly surprise to her quarantined fiancé. Chung didn't want Jason's 30th birthday to pass without some fun, so she wrote 76 invitations to all of their interior-facing neighbors, inviting them to celebrate on Monday at exactly 2:30 p.m. She led her fiancé to a hallway window, and on the count of three, dozens of neighbors sang "Happy Birthday."

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