LOS ANGELES – Despite Tuesday’s confirmation that a new and more contagious variant of COVID-19 has been detected in Colorado, the strain has not yet been found in the Southland, but Los Angeles County’s public health director said there’s a good chance it’s already here.
Colorado’s confirmation of the new strain, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, is the first detection of the variant in the United States. Colorado officials said the patient was a man in his 20s who had no recent history of traveling.
The new strain, known as B.1.1.7, is not thought to cause more severe illness than the original virus, but it is believed to be dramatically more contagious — meaning it is far more easily transmitted from one person to the next. Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said local health officials have tested a limited number of samples from COVID-positive patients, and “we have not found any evidence of the variant in that first group of tests that we ran.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s not here,” Ferrer said. “It just means it didn’t show up in the first round of testing.
“… For all of us in public health, because there is so much spread right now and so many people who are infected — and we’re not running all of the samples through this sort of gene sequencing — it would be impossible for us to say with all certainty that the variant isn’t here,” Ferrer said. “And almost all of us, I think, agree that there’s a high probability that the variant is here, although at this point it doesn’t appear to be dominant, because if it was you might see it initially in the samples that are being run.
But Ferrer said even if the variant is in the county, it wouldn’t change the infection-control measures that are already in place.
“I think whether the variant is here or it isn’t here, the steps we need to take are exactly the same,” Ferrer said. “Whether the variant is slightly more infectious than the virus as we’re experiencing it now in the predominant strain we’re seeing here in L.A. County, the steps to take are the same. And the urgency is the same.
“There is a lot of community spread, and that makes it easier for this virus to keep spreading,” Ferrer said. “So we’re all going to have to do everything we know how to do to contain the virus.”
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Trust But Verify says
Outstanding letter to the local paper calling into question the ‘wisdom’ and pmotives of Mayor Parris. Warning to Palmdale and Santa Clarita: proceed with extreme caution with ANY collaboration that involves that schiester. Trust anything he says at your own risk.
Joint powers
When I first heard of the possibility of a joint public health department between Santa Clarita, Palmdale, and Lancaster, I assumed this meant Palmdale was onboard with Lancaster, but that’s not the case.
In a recent interview, R Rex Parris, seems to blame Palmdale for its recent surge, pointing to the fact that masks are not mandated and Mayor Hoffbauer is often seen without his.
According to Parris, if the county acted sooner, it would see compliance similar to Lancaster. He said Lancaster has been “hammering, without exception” the need for people to wear masks since March, even has building and safety inspectors going “around all the stores, [making it] clear to them ‘you violate this rule, we’re going to shut them down.’ We haven’t shut anybody down.”
And he’s right, he hasn’t shut down a single business, but he fails to mention that there have been over 35 citations and at least 5 repeat offenders with some racking up more than 4 citations in the past 3 months.
I’d like to believe that Palmdale will stay transparent with its residents by not succumbing to misleading statements. There is no indication that a separate health department will fare any better. At the end of his interview, Parris was asked why he wants a joint health department with Palmdale who doesn’t mandate wearing masks, to which he replied “because then I could enforce it couldn’t I?” What concerned me was his response when the interviewer stated “Palmdale may or might have some something to say about that as well.” Parris stated “[Hoffbauer] wouldn’t because that’s how Joint Powers agreement works.”
If reason and logic triumph, it makes more sense to follow the recommendation of a health director who blames racism for disparities rather than the mayor who blames the neighboring city.
Aurora Hernandez
Palmdale
KAREN A BRENNAN says
Thank you for your hard work we need EVERYONE to stay home and safe and EVERYONE needs to be paid to do so. Otherwise, I fear there will be no end to the covid nightmare. You are appreciated for your dedication to our city. Meanwhile I guess Garcetti has his sights in DC now. What a hack!
The Strain says
#StayHome