‘Game-changer’ mutant
But good compliance rates were only one part of the race to stop the resurgent spread. Ferrer’s update was coupled with a sobering assessment of just how relentless the new variant is, finding new life among the region’s nearly 4 million people who’ve yet to be vaccinated.
It’s the nature of this mutant that underpins reasons why cities with lower case rates can’t be exempt from the mask order, and why the county should fight the battle as a unified county rather than allowing some cities to be exempt, Ferrer said.
“The pandemic is not behaving the way it was in the month before vaccines were widely available,” Ferrer said.
Ferrer’s report did include reasons for hope.
Since February, for instance, the number total positive cases have dropped. “This is clear evidence of the power of these vaccines,” she said.
In June, for instance, fully vaccinated people represented 20% of all the case diagnosed among L.A. County residents. And unvaccinated cases accounted for 80% of all cases, according to Public Health. From July 1 through July 16, there were 13,598 cases diagnosed in L.A. County — 74% of all the cases were among the unvaccinated and the fully vaccinated represented 26%.
Hospitalizations and case rates have steeply jumped over the last few weeks among unvaccinated people. In June, 92% of hospitalizations were of unvaccinated people, and 8% were of vaccinated people.
“This does contribute to our certainty that the vaccines are working as intended here in L.A.County,” Ferrer said. “And although vaccinated people are seeing a rise in new Covid diagnoses, they are primarly experiencing their infections not as severe illnesses that bring them to the emergency room but as bad colds. As the data shows, unvaccinated people simply do not have the same level of confidence that if they get infected with this virus, that it will lead to mild illness.”
Among those who have died, it’s still too early to assess the full data, Ferrer said.
Just over 61% of L.A.County is fully vaccinated, Ferrer noted, and added that there’s been a slight uptick recently in the rate of people getting vaccinated, though she was troubled by lower vaccination rates among the young, middle aged and among African Americans.
Ferrer’s update coincided with re-emerging national concern over the impact of the Delta variant, which researchers say is much more contagious than its progenitor.
The Centers for Disease Control on Tuesday changed gears on its masking guidelines and recommended that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging, a federal official said.
Citing new information about the variant’s ability to spread among vaccinated people, the CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status.
While L.A.County has already required masks in indoor public settings, it was clear that with hospitalization rates rising rapidly across the country, officials in many municipalities are growing concerned.
In addition to L.A. County, in recent weeks, a growing number of cities and towns have restored indoor masking rules. St.Louis, Savannah, Georgia, and Provincetown, Massachusetts, are among the places that rekindled mask mandates this month.
Police Department experiences an increase in positive cases and has one employee hospitalized in critical condition. In the last week, an additional 33 LAPD employees have tested positive for the virus, bringing the department’s total to 2,760, LAPD Chief Michel Moore told the Police Commission on Tuesday. Last week, Moore reported an increase of 19 positive cases within the department.
Eighty-one employees are home recovering, an increase of 18 from last week, Moore said.
Moore did not provide an update Tuesday on the department’s vaccination rate, but he said the department was “closely monitoring the changing landscape as to the vaccinations and the requirements.”
“We’ve had conversations with Mayor Garcetti and I understand that the mayor’s team is working with labor across the city for vaccination protocols and we’re paying close attention to that,” Moore said Tuesday morning, before Garcetti’s announcement.