L.A. County

VACCINATIONS Fully vaccinated (ages 5+)

7,413,641

Total doses

19,270,380

Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in an online briefing. She stressed that the estimate is only a projection which could change dramatically based on admission numbers in the coming days.

If the county remains at that level for two consecutive weeks, it will reimpose a mandatory indoor maskwearing mandate. Under the current schedule, that would happen July 29.

“We don't have the luxury of doing nothing,” Ferrer said, pointing to the high level of virus spread in the county — increasingly fueled by the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the virus — and rising hospitalization numbers.

“What makes the most sense is to remain committed to protecting one another,” she said.

According to state figures, there were 989 COVID-19-positive patients in county hospitals as of Thursday, up from 920 a day earlier. The number of patients being treated in intensive care was 103, up from 89 on Wednesday.

Health officials have said that many of those patients entered the hospital for other reasons before testing positive for COVID-19, but they still place an added burden on hospital staff as they require special infection-control measures. Ferrer said roughly 40% of patients with the virus were admitted for COVID-19 illness while 60% were admitted for other reasons.

Ferrer clarified Thursday that the hospital admission rate being relied upon by the county in determining the “high” community level differs from the one being reported weekly by the CDC. She said the CDC figure relating to hospital admission rates combines Los Angeles and Orange counties and Orange County has a substantially higher admission rate than Los Angeles.

The CDC website Thursday showed both LosAngeles and Orange counties with a COVID-19 hospital admission rate of 9.7 per 100,000 residents, putting both on the precipice of entering the “high” virus activity level. Taken separately, however, LosAngeles' rate is only 8.4 per 100,000, while Orange County's is 13.3 per 100,000.

Los Angeles County will be relying on its separate local rate when determining when the two-week clock will being ticking on a universal indoor maskwearing mandate.

The county reported 5,316 additional COVID-19 cases Thursday, along with 13 new deaths. The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus rose to 16.9%.

Ferrer noted that the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of COVID-19 are now responsible for nearly 40% of all specially sequenced cases — roughly 21/2 times higher than two weeks ago. Nationally, the CDC estimates those two variants are responsible for about 70% of sequenced cases.

The number of new cases announced by the county each day is believed to be an undercount due to the prevalence of take-home COVID-19 tests, the results of which are not always reported to the county.