Los Angeles County recorded more than 4,500 new COVID-19 deaths during a three-day period ending Monday, Sept. 12, along with 37 new virus-related fatalities.
The 4,544 new infections lifted the county’s overall total from throughout the pandemic to 3,430,358. The county, which no longer reports COVID numbers on the weekends, logged 2,348 cases Saturday, 1,255 on Sunday and 941 on Monday. Sunday and Monday figures tend to be lower due to delays in reporting from the weekend. Health officials have also noted that official case numbers are likely low due to the number of people who rely on at-home tests but do not report the results to the county.
The county reported 17 COVID-related deaths on Saturday, and 10 each on Sunday and Monday. The new fatalities lifted the county’s overall death toll to 33,385.
An update was not immediately available on the number of COVID- positive patients in county hospitals. On Saturday, the latest day for which figures are available, there were 771 virus-positive patients hospitalized in the county, with 106 of them being treated in intensive care. County officials have said about 43% of patients with COVID were actually hospitalized due to virus-related illness, while the rest were admitted for other reasons, with some only learning they were infected when they were tested upon admission. The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 5.1% as of Monday.
The county last week began offering the recently approved COVID vaccine booster shot that targets the Omicron variants of the virus. The BA.5 subvariant of the Omicron variant is believed to be responsible for the vast majority of infections occurring in the county and nationally.
The newly approved Pfizer/BioNTech booster is for those age 12 and over, while the Moderna bivalent booster is for those age 18 and older. Details on where the vaccines are available can be found at vaccinatelacounty.com, or in Spanish, vacunatelosangeles.com.
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