Los Angeles County reported nearly 4,000 new COVID- 19 infections Friday, the highest number since Feb. 6, but attributed the large number in part to increased testing being required by businesses and schools.
The 3,930 new cases brought the county’s cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 1,319,216. The county also announced another 17 deaths due to the virus, raising the overall death toll to 24,756.
The county Department of Public Health, noting the large daily number of cases, said the figure reflects “significant increases in screening testing at businesses and schools.”
According to state figures, there were 1,383 people hospitalized in the county with COVID-19, including 303 people in intensive care. The hospitalization number is the highest it has been since early March. Health officials have attributed the sharp rise in infections over the past two months to the a highly infectious Delta variant of the virus that was first discovered in India.
“The continued increase in cases serves as a stark reminder that responding to the infectious Delta variant requires adjustments if we want to slow the spread,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. “Let’s continue to enjoy time spent with our friends and family doing activities that bring us joy — but let’s do so adding back sensible protections. Wear a face mask when indoors and when in very crowded spaces outdoors. Move social gatherings outside and practice distancing when among unvaccinated people.
“If you can’t avoid sustained close contact with people you don’t know, consider upgrading your mask to a KN95 or respirator,” she said. “And please, if you can get vaccinated, do so now to avoid being part of the surge,” Ferrer said.
Friday’s rolling average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 5.3%, up from 4.7% on Thursday. Ferrer said Thursday that the rate of daily new infections and the testing-positivity rate were both down noticeably from last week, offering some hope that the surge is cases is beginning to level off.
“… While we’re still experiencing a significantly high case rate, a little more than two weeks ago at the time of our recent health officer order requiring universal masking indoors, we also noted that our cases had doubled every 10 days,” Ferrer said. “What we’re seeing now is a much smaller increase in our cases over a couple of weeks, which is what we’re hoping for 10 days after implementing an effective public health measure.”
Ferrer said that on Aug. 1, the county had seen a 22% week-over-week increase in new cases — while the increase in the rest of the state was 57%. That’s a sign, she said, that Los Angeles County — which implemented a mandatory indoor mask-wearing mandate in mid-July — is now seeing slower transmission of the virus. Ferrer said it was too early to say if the mask requirement is responsible for the county’s improvement, “but I know for sure it contributed.” She also noted that the county has now seen three consecutive weeks of increases in the number of people receiving a first dose of vaccine, following months of declines.
Among county residents age 12 and over, 6.22 million have received at least one dose, and 5.45 million are fully vaccinated. Of the county’s overall 10.3 million residents — including more than a million who aren’t eligible for the shots — 61% have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 53% are fully vaccinated.
Black residents age 12 and up continue to have the lowest rate of vaccinations, at 47%, followed by Latino residents at 56%, white residents at 67% and Asians at 78%. Residents age 12-15 have the lowest overall vaccination rate at 49%. Black residents aged 12-15 have a vaccination rate of just 26%. As a result, Ferrer said, Black residents are experiencing the highest rate of new COVID infections, at 426 per 100,000 residents during the two-week period that ended July 24. That was a 500% increase from the two-week period ending June 26.
Ferrer again highlighted the danger of the virus to unvaccinated residents, noting that from May 1 to July 17, people who haven’t been vaccinated were nearly four times more likely to be infected with COVID than vaccinated residents. Of the 3,158 people who were hospitalized in the county during that time period, only 8% were fully vaccinated.
Ferrer said that between April 1 and July 18, 95.2% of the people age 16 and older who died from COVID in the county were unvaccinated. As of Aug. 3, among roughly 5 million fully vaccinated people in the county, 15,628 had tested positive for the virus, for an infection rate of 0.31%. Just 446 were hospitalized, for a rate of 0.009% and 41 had died, a rate of 0.0008%.
Ferrer acknowledged that vaccinated people can get infected with the virus, but they are far less likely to become serious ill or require hospitalization.
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FatWhiteBob says
I see no social distancing or masks at many restaurants. Disneyland was jammed packed. I fully expect to see a covid surge. And what the hec is going on at the Southern border?
Danny boy says
Indycar’s inaugural street-race in downtown Memphis yesterday, not one person attending was wearing a mask –
Miranda says
If the vaccine really worked? Coronavirus wouldn’t be spreading like wildfire. If the vaccine really worked, we wouldn’t still be wearing masks. It would be the other way around if the vaccine really worked, those vaccinated having nothing to fear from those who aren’t.
If the vaccine really worked? Democrats would be withholding it from those unvaccinated, attaching fees, taxing it asunder. That it doesn’t really work, they want to shove it, right down your throat.
Annabella says
99% of the world’s technical manuals are in English, French, German and Russian. America has the best virologists on this planet. If the coronavirus hasn’t by now been snuffed? Then, it’s because these government wants it this way.
Most peculiar, indeed: quiet as a mouse, dead silence, not a single peep from the nation’s military virologists, at Fort Meade.
It’s as though the government holds them hostage, guns to their heads.
Tim Scott says
The US has the best physicists…and yet we do not have faster than light travel…must be a government plot…
Do people ever suggest that maybe you are paranoid?
Alicia says
Inquiring minds would like to know, did Fort Meade get caught with their pants down? Or, is it the case they’re just sitting on their hands in realization of every virologists’ wet dream, actual human test subjects, us, their very own personal Guinea pigs?
Tim Scott says
lolololol…so what you are saying is that the vaccine was supposed to miraculously prevent infections in people who REFUSE to be vaccinated? Is that your position?
Ruby says
Position? Only a newsie would say that.
Signal indication “Tim Scott” is indeed an AVTimes.com staffer, commenting to his own articles, it’s only wannabe journalists, bark such characterizations, at elected officials.
What is your position? Is that your position?
Tim Scott says
LOLOLOL…ya got me! I do have experience in journalism…not working at the AVTimes, but guess what, they are not the only employers in the sea.
Thanks for noticing.
Now, do you have anything to say about the actual topic? Do you agree with Miranda; that unvaccinated people getting sick is proof that the vaccine doesn’t work?
Is that YOUR position as well?
Stacy says
He’s a wannabe newsie!
Tim Scott says
lololol…if I wanted to be a “newsie” it wouldn’t be “have experience” it would be “am working.” As to whether that experience was “mainstream media,” I worked for a hockey magazine so not as mainstream as covering baseball, but close enough I guess.
Gonzo says
Ruby’s smoked him out. She’s had this mofo pegged from the get-go. Sure enough, as we suspected, a communist sympathizer, a stinking mainstream media newsie. Shun him.
Donna says
What all newsies share in common, disingenuous, sneaky, underhanded.
Tim Scott says
lololol…Donna, what have I done that is “underhanded”? I never said anything about having covered hockey for a magazine twenty years ago…so what? Have you provided a full resume to your fellow commenters? Several times people have put forward this dim bulb idea that I am “working for the AVTimes,” and I have pointed out what a silly idea it is in a very straightforward manner.
If you were actually paying attention you would see that just like everyone else I had several comments held for moderation over the weekend that appeared this morning…but most of the commenters want to believe their paranoid nonsense about being singled out so they will ignore that inconvenient fact.
Dr. Robert says
Vaccine’s failed. We know it doesn’t work.
Tim Scott says
And yet all us vaccinated people just stubbornly refuse to get sick and die. Weekly casualty rate in New Jersey has doubled over two weeks…number of vaccinated people who died, zero. Number of people hospitalized with covid has doubled, number of vaccinated people in intensive care in New Jersey, zero.
Yes, I cite New Jersey because CNN published their numbers, but the numbers are verified as being from the state health department. If Faux News or whatever right biased source wanted to provide this news they could do so, because the numbers are just facts. But of course this contradicts the hot garbage spewing out of the entertainment talent in their prime time slots so they ignore it.
Now, Mikey boy called me a ‘liar’ for citing very similar numbers for California and ‘corrected’ me with ‘only’ 91% of covid deaths are the unvaccinated. IF that were true…the vaccine is still obviously working. Upon request I will go through that, but since it is pretty obvious to the most casual observer we’ll skip it for now.
By the way, near as I can tell Mikey boy just pulled those claims out of a bodily orifice because I can’t find anything of the sort on any health department site.
So, tell me…what’s in it for you? The disinformation about the vaccine, talking people out of a treatment that is demonstrably saving lives…do you just get off on causing death, or are you making money from the pandemic somehow?
Tim Scott says
Soooo…what’s your angle? The vaccine works, prevents deaths. You seem upset when that fact gets presented…so…you want deaths? Is that it? Why?
By the way, notice how similar this post, and the post by ‘salty’ that was made at about the same time are. Now, salty is definitely Mikey boy, who went on a Tim bashing tear over the weekend…in a swarm of posts that were definitely violations of site policy.
So here we are…Mikey boy, as usual, spewing at me about the things that he does and wishes desperately he could get away with, as if it was me doing them. A sad little tortured soul that just can’t get the respect that he thinks he deserves.
Nope says
How do you blame testing ?.. testing is going on because dumb@ss people simply not following rules.. I have
0 sympathy for adults getting sick and passing away from this virus.. The option of getting a shot to prevent the worse case issue is available yet you still have hillbillies and dumb@ss people, in general, thinking they’re smarter than scientists… Your freedom and choice d@mn right, but do us all a favor when you get sick.. Don’t run to the doctors taking up space.. just go ahead and pass away in agony in your house.
Tim Scott says
lolololol…the only time I’ve ever heard it referred to as “the Donald Trump virus” is when outrage mongering conservatives are whining about it. I have never heard of democrats actually calling it that. But I guess when your “movement” is morally bankrupt and completely out of ideas and demonstrably incapable of governing you gotta fuel the outrage with whatever you can get. Even if you have to make up stuff to be outraged about.
Loampounder says
There seems to be a lot of people ignoring the ramifications of this news: “attributed the large number in part to increased testing being required by businesses and schools”. 1) There is a lot of spread by people who do not know they are sick (known idea but does not sink in much) and 2) some sick people have no indication that they should get tested other than the requirement to check a box. Think of that last concept – no symptoms or impacts enough to think that they were “sick”.
What fraction of infected people have no idea that they are “sick”? How much of this global-scaring pandemic is unseen? Not only do health people have to quarantine but people that would not have a health risk WITH the virus are taught to be afraid, be very afraid…
Jeboe says
… vaccine doesn’t work. Just makes you sick, for about three months –
Tim Scott says
And yet all those stubborn vaccinated people just refuse to get sick and die to prove your daft claim.
Almost everyone currently hospitalized with covid was not vaccinated (last I checked this was 99%).
Last I checked almost everyone who has died of covid was unvaccinated (this also was 99% as of early this week).
If your claim was true, given that over half the population is vaccinated, why is the covid not hospitalizing those people? Why is it not killing those people? Why are ONLY unvaccinated people getting really sick and dying?
Come up with ANYTHING plausible to explain that and we can discuss it. Otherwise, be rightfully ignored as a daft clown talking out your butt.
Stinger says
Okay… THAT was great!
Tim Scott says
thanx