New variants highly contagious

COVID-19 wave: It's not time to let down your guard, experts say L.A. County: Mask mandate likely to return by end of month with hospital admission rate rising

If it seems like half the people you know have come down with COVID-19 recently, you're not alone.

Southern California is in the midst of a sustained wave of coronavirus cases that has been building since the spring, and with two new wildly contagious variants bursting onto the scene in recent weeks, the wave is showing no signs of ending.

But if you think that a lower percentage of people being hospitalized or dying because of COVID-19 these days means you don't need to take precautions like masking and getting vaccinated and boosted, well, public health experts would beg to differ.

Here are six things to know about these new variants and how you can protect yourself and your community.

What are these new variants?

They're actually subvariants of omicron, the strain

With COVID-19 hospitalizations continuing to rise, Los Angeles County is on pace to reach the “high” virus activity level by next week, which could equate to another universal indoor mask-wearing mandate by the end of the month, the public health director said Thursday.

The county is currently in the “medium” virus activity level, as defined by the U.S.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It will reach the “high” category if the seven-day average of new COVID-19-related hospital admissions reaches 10 per 100,000 residents.

As of Thursday, the county's admission rate was 8.4 per 100,000 residents. But given the rate of increase over the past two weeks, the county is on pace to reach 10 per 100,000 residents by July 14, Public