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LACo reports 3,200 new COVID cases, but is surge leveling off?

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Los Angeles County reported its highest number of daily new COVID-19 cases since February Thursday, while the number of people hospitalized neared the 1,000 mark, but the rate of people testing positive for the virus appears to be leveling off after a precipitous rise.

“This suggests to us that perhaps the rate of increase may be stabilizing,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

The county has been experiencing sharp rises in daily case numbers, hospitalizations and testing-positivity rate over the past several weeks, with the rises attributed to the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus. While daily case numbers remain high and hospitalizations are expected to continue trending up as a result, Ferrer said the stabilization in the testing-positivity rate is a glimmer of hope.

As of Thursday, the rolling average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 5.17%. Ferrer said that’s a “half a percentage point” increase from last week’s 4.73% rate. The previous week, however, saw the rate increase by a full percentage point. Even though the stabilization was a positive sign, the 5.17% rate is still far above the June 15 rate that was below 1%. And the 3,248 new cases reported by the county Thursday still raised eyebrows, marking the highest daily number since Feb. 13 and representing a 17% increase over last week. The new cases brought the county’s cumulative number since the start of the pandemic to 1,293,450. Another 17 fatalities due to COVID were reported, bringing the county’s death toll to 24,675.

According to state figures, there were 991 people hospitalized in the county with COVID, including 203 people in intensive care. Ferrer said that since hospitalizations traditionally rise in the weeks following an increase in cases, the hospital figure is likely to continue going up “for some time.”

She noted, however, that a small percentage of the people listed as COVID hospital patients actually were admitted for reasons other than the coronavirus, which was only detected during routine admission screenings. She also said hospitalization numbers have been increasing at a much slower rate than case numbers, with infections jumping by 740% over the last month and hospitalizations only up 180%. The difference is believed to be a sign of vaccine effectiveness, preventing people from becoming severely ill due to the virus.

The vast majority of people being hospitalized are unvaccinated. According to Ferrer, there were 3,167 people hospitalized due to COVID between May 1 and July 17, and 92% of them were either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. Only 8% were fully vaccinated.

“These trends do contribute to our certainty that vaccines are working as intended here in L.A. County,” Ferrer said. “Although vaccinated people are seeing a rise in new COVID diagnoses, they’re primarily experiencing their infections not as severe illness that brings them to the emergency room, but as bad colds. As the data shows, unvaccinated people simply cannot have the same level of confidence that an infection with this virus will lead to mild illness.”

County figures show that as of July 27, among 4.9 million fully vaccinated residents, there have been 10,656 who tested positive for the virus, for a rate of 0.22%. That rate marks a 63% increase from a week ago, but still remains statistically low. Among the vaccinated people, only 410 were hospitalized, for a rate of 0.008%, and only 35 died, a rate of 0.0007%. From Jan. 1 through June 30 of this year, 99.8% of the people who have died from COVID-19 were unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, Ferrer said.

While the pace of vaccinations has slowed significantly in the county, Ferrer said the county has now seen two consecutive weeks of small increases in the number of people receiving a shot. Between July 19-25, about 70,000 doses were administered in the county, up about 7,500 from the previous week.

“We’re grateful for these signs of increased vaccination uptake,” she said.

Vaccination rates remain low among younger residents, particularly in the Black community. As of July 25, only 30% of Black residents aged 16-17 and 18-29 had received at least one shot, roughly half of the rate of their white counterparts. Only 24% of Black residents aged 12-15 had at least one dose, also half the rate for white residents.

Overall, Black residents had the lowest overall rate of vaccination, at 46%, compared to 55% for Latinos, 66% for white residents and 77% for Asians.

Of the county’s 10.3 million overall residents, 60% have received at least one dose, and 52% are fully vaccinated. Roughly 1.3 million residents under age 12 remain ineligible for the vaccine.

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59 comments for "LACo reports 3,200 new COVID cases, but is surge leveling off?"

  1. After two hits of the fake vaccine, arrrgh! More like punishment than medicine, if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t. If I had it to do all over again, best course of action, I’d avoid the virus, I’d avoid the vaccine, I’d stay away from people.

  2. Democrats do a fine job rigging elections, getting themselves in office. Once they do, with certainty, everything goes haywire.

    • Democrats will do an extraordinary job of it, inflating the economy, evicting more renters in the name of progress and prosperity, throwing more families into the streets since the great depression, all the while admonishing us, “… don’t forget to wear your mask!”

      • What inflation?

        The price of cavior is down.

        Lobster is still the same.

        I’m eating better than ever thanks to Biden/Harris/Pelosi/Schumer.

        How ’bout you. Still chowing on Alpo? That’s on you, sister.

    • Because they feel America needs to be punished, our democrat overlords doubled price of our food, tripled price of our gasoline, fumbled control over illegal immigration, and lost control over the virus.

      • Why weren’t you being patriotic, Mel, and taking part in saving the country on 1/6 per orders from your Orange Master?

        You were chicken, you say?

        But, of course you are.

        Now, you talk tough.

    • The democrats have become obnoxious. Self-important. Social functions, they alienate everyone. They run everyone off. We don’t invite them, anymore.

    • At the State Brothers, Friday, for the bait ‘n switch on Porterhouse steak, called to account for the discrepancy, as advertised, US$4.99 a pound, upon arrival priced US$7.99 a pound, the butcher came out from behind the counter, whispered, “… sorry, this is as good as it gets. Buy all you can, while you still can. By next week, price is going to 15 bux a pound. By years’ end, beefsteak will be 40 bux a pound.”

      • Ohhhhh! Secret revelations from “the butcher at State Brothers!!!” Q better step up his game!!! The ignorant and gullible need more nonsense, and if Q doesn’t deliver they will find someone who will!!!

  3. For three months I was in agony. Roughest three months of my life, my second Moderna jab was a wipe-out. I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, aches and pains finally starting to subside. If it had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t.

      • Stinger
        My mechanic has been very sick, dizzy spells etc. for about a month after his second shot. Granted he wasn’t in the best of shape to start.
        Do you know Alfred and base your response on him being a true liar?
        I suspect your comment is more along the lines of you just being a schoolyard bully.
        And the handle “Stinger” must be how your wife refers to you, you poor little man you.
        So get a life and extends.

    • Not gonna lie…the shot hurt like a mother. I got hit once with a bat in pretty much the same place and the bruise ran all the way down to my wrist, and I was amazed at how similar the pain in my arm was.

      But hey, guess what! I just went out and had tea with a friend, sat aeound in a public place and didn’t worry about getting infected with what my young friends refer to as ‘the boomer annihilator’ or worry that I would be passing it on to a friend, or even a stranger.

      And also, I’m alive, while 600,00 people in the US and counting, 98% of whom were not vaccinated, are dead. So while I sympathize with how hard on you the vaccine was, I encourage you to consider that you too are still alive…and because you are vaccinated you are almost certain to stay that way, god and bus drivers willing.

    • Yeah. I was a pretty sick puppy, too. Had my last jab last month. Kind of sore in all my joints. Sleeping 12 hours a day, having a real tough time getting up in the morning. Can’t imagine the virus being any worse than this.

      • ask one of the 600,000 Americans who died of the virus…they would tell you it is worse…if they could

    • I’m all screwed up. I can’t get up in the morning. By 8:30 pm, I’m spent. Since the vaccine, I can’t get back to my daily routine. I can’t get back to my old self. Since the last injection, feels like I’ve aged a decade.

    • 5 years of systematic mendacity, one lie right after another, their credibility squandered on Russia and Ukraine, Nanzi Pelozi’s national socialist democrat movement succeeded in one thing: severing any offer ‘n compromise axiom whatsoever for across-the-isle reasoning. Similarly so, the democrat influencers pedaling their push for a totalitarian one-party system boast zero axiom, with respect to influence or persuasion. The more they comment, the more averse moderates and conservatives become to reconciliation.

      • You can’t serious Stu.

        Either you are intentially being dishonest or are truly ignorant.

        “5 years of systematic mendacity, one lie right after another, their credibility squandered on Russia and Ukraine,…”

        That was about Trump and republicans wasn’t it?

    • Before the national socialist democrats subverted their party, I lent my ear intently to that side of the isle. One lie right after another, their credibility a foregone conclusion, our TVs are off to mainstream media. An echo chamber on their side of the isle, the only ones listening to them are themselves.

    • My employer’s pressuring me to get vaccinated. I’ve been holding out. I remember you saying on another thread about being group A positive, getting mighty sick. I’m A+. I can’t afford to be sick. Neighbor down the street doing up counterfeit COVID cards on his old system 9 Macintosh, 10 bux, I think it’s the way to go. I’m not doing the jabs unless they put a gun to my head.

      • Not sure where u work, but I had to put in my vaccine dose number which is specific to me. If u get that wrong, or use someone else’s, it could flag u as a fraud. May want to rethink that. Just to get u into somewhere in the future if it goes that way, I’m sure it’s fine if that’s what u want to do, but I wouldn’t be using it on my employer. Might just get u fired, and possibly sued if they try to trace someone else getting sick to u.

  4. National socialist democrats of the Pelozi political party decree, mandatory vaccinations for all federal employees. Even though the vaccine doesn’t work worth beans.

    • 98% of people infected with covid who develop a fatal case, or even a case requiring hospitalization, have been not vaccinated. For you to say the vaccine doesn’t work confirms that you are either grossly uninformed, or just a bald faced liar. Please clarify which so you can be mocked appropriately.

      • Dude , just stop. Maybe they meant it’s not working like Biden and scientists said it Would. Don’t forget at first they said if your vaccinated you can’t spread it. Do you remember that or do you only remember the stuff you wanna believe. If you can’t admit the science has been messed up since the beginning of this than you my friend are either a bald face liar or just uniformed. I thought you bleeding hearts were about inclusion. I love how you want to mock uniformed people. Try to lighten up. You act like your the smartest person in the world so you should be stoked and spreading your knowledge to the uninformed not putting people down.

        • the “uninformed” in this situation are standing with their eyes shut and their fingers in their ears screaming misinformation at the top of their lungs…they deserve no sympathy for being uninformed while they are willfully keeping themselves that way…and they will get none from me

    • So everyone do like Sang and follow your own medical advice. He injected actual mashed up beans into his arm and is doing just great!

    • For most people, the vaccine’s okay. Some people, it makes you sick. Very sick.

      Whacked-out virtue signalling democrats mandating the vaccine, care not one iota about you, whether you drop dead, whether you get sick. They care about one thing: political payback; sticking it to you; on account you won’t vote for them.

      This vaccine thing, this CRT thing, democrat people want to rub your nose in it. They want to anger you. They want you getting sick. Very-very sick.

      • Look at the comments, they all say whacked democrats, or national socialist democrats. They all have the same phrases and are all brain washed by the same channel. Birds of a feather I guess.

        • You noticed!

          They all send their brains out to the same laundry, no question about it.

          • Obviously the same person with multiple personality disorder (see small “d” in democrats).

            Sorta like someone we know and love, lol.

      • If conservatives and moderates pleaded with their democrat masters, “… we need the vaccine; we have to have the vaccine,” the democrats would be fighting like rabid dogs, biting our heads off, withholding it.

        • Moderates are mostly vaccinated already. It’s only the conservatives who are making the vaccination into a political stand for their right to be stupidly dangerous to society.

    • You need to take a look at this first amendment you are referring to, because what you say about it makes it pretty obvious that you are totally clueless as to what it even says, much less what it “guarantees.”

      It’s total balloon heads that TALK about the bill of rights without ever READING the bill of rights that WEAKEN our constitutional rights. Stop being a balloon head, for everyone’s good.

    • Filthy democrats, they love that you don’t want to get the vaccine. They don’t want you spoiling their fun, going out, getting the vaccine for yourself. They want the pleasure of ramming it down your throat. They want to make you get the vaccine.

      • O love it for sure, because at this point the only people dying of covid in the US are the unvaccinated, and the unvaccinared are at this point almost all unvaccinated by choice. I regret it when someone who for health reasons genuinely cannot be vaccinated is harmed, but people who are “making a political statement by refusing the vaccine”…yeah every one of them that dies improves the gene pool.

      • Oh, Lucas

        A spoon full of suger makes the medicine go down.

        Are you a big boy and can you handle it?

    • Maybe, at one point during the developmental phase, efficacy of the vaccine looked promising. By the time it finally rolled out, it’s been long since obsolete.

      • It’s the concept, an mRNA spike to jolt our immune systems, having ultimately proven defective.

        • so defective that vaccinated people stubbornly continue not dying or needing hospitalization

          Look, I was as concerned about “rushed to market without adequate trials” as the next guy, but there has now been a four BILLION sample trial conducted and guess what…it’s time to shut up and get your shots so we can all go on about our business.

        • Thank you, Tim, for pointing out the obvious fact that so many “it’s not REALLY approved, yet” arguers consistently fail to grasp. The vaccines are PROVEN effective in the field, to the tune of hundreds of millions of people having gotten their doses with every little niggling side effect reported. These all make it very clear that it IS effective for its purposes: reduce the likelihood of contracting the virus in the first place and reduce the likelihood of getting a serious case, in the unlikely event that you do get it.

          This is all a repeat of the obvious truth that, for some reason, these mutton-headed mango monkeyed morons just can’t seem to wrap their beady little brains around: Vaccines Work. Period.

    • I have an answer to this awaiting moderation, but it’s actually off topic.

      On the topic…yes, people who are vaccinated are still susceptible to “catch covid.” However they are clearly less likely to develop the kind of case that leads to hospitalization or death. I don’t know what your comment about that is, but if you are wailing about “get the vaccine and still catch it” without adding “but not dying is clearly a plus” them you are misrepresenting.

      • Tim Scott.

        Have you considered using ALL CAPS to penentrate the ignorance bubble?

        Some old lady wrote the Valley Press that she’s counting on her immune system to protect her and that 98% of COVID patients survive. Oh, and she’s blaming immigrants and whatnot?

        So, 2% of the deaths equals 600,000+ Americans.

        She represents maybe millions of like-minded Fox ‘news’ viewers who are not getting the vaccines.

        That’s the misinformation out here. We see the tip of the falsehood iceberg here and wherever people submit comments publicly.

        The thing is, rather than controlling COVID like we did with other recent pandemics, these people are causing it to persist maybe for a generation. If only they would die off quickly.

      • Well, she is correct, 98% do survive. I doubt she would be really interested in lining up with 49 other people on the promise that I was only going to shoot one of them in the head, but whatever.

        The real problem is that while 98% survive, only 95-96% survive without needing hospitalization or other significant medical attention. So if we allow so many people to get it at the same time that demand for medical care (keeping in mind that there is not a moratorium on heart attacks and all the other things requiring medical treatment) exceeds the supply then that mortality rate can very quickly double.

        Now maybe she is so sure of her privileges that in the event of an overmatched hospital she can rely on them saying “someone else go home to die, we need to treat Ms. I’ll-take-my-chances here because she’s so special…but I can’t count on that myself and even if I could I would rather not have someone else sent home to die because I “need” care that I could have avoided needing by taking a basic precaution.

        But maybe that’s just me.

      • Put another way, 2% of anything sounds small.

        If there were 600,000 deaths a year from auto accidents, who would drive around the outer edges of the Antelope Valley with problematic intersections or the 405?

        That’s if they could afford the auto insurance even with emu.

      • The ignorance of some of these comments on this thread is incredible. If we went with the Sanders way of naming it the Trump vaccine would it be OK with u guys then??? How is this split down party lines amazes me.

      • I am so far past being surprised at the level of ignorance routinely displayed…sad, really.