L.A. County reports more than 18,000 new cases since Saturday
Rise in infections may be bringing health officials a little closer to reinstating in indoor mask mandate
Los Angeles County confirmed more than 18,000 new coronavirus cases since Saturday, the Department of Public Health reported Monday, continuing the neardaily stark reminder of the virus's transmissibility as the countywide indoor mask mandate gets closer to being reinstated.
Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer warned during a public briefing last week that a new indoor mask mandate could be implemented by July 29 if the county's numbers continued trending upwards.
The indoor mask mandate would go into effect again if the county hits the “high” community transmission tier as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new numbers reported Monday appear to confirm the county's concerns that omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are fueling a swift rise in cases, compounded by an uptick of in-person gatherings held over the recent Fourth of July holiday weekend.
The health department Monday reported 18,158 new coronavirus cases and 39 new COVID-19 deaths since Saturday, bringing the countywide totals since the start of the pandemic to 3,178,242 and 32,451 respectively.
L.A. County reported an additional 6,416 new cases on Friday, along with 18 new deaths, the highest singleday death toll since March 30, the health department said.
The numbers reported on Monday are likely undercounted because of delays in weekend and holiday reporting, the department said. The prevalence of at-home coronavirus test kits also contributes to the undercount, as those results are rarely reported to health officials.
Still, more than 12.2 million L.A. County residents were tested for the coronavirus from Saturday to Monday, the county reported, with 23% testing positive.
L.A. County reported a cumulative 32,085 new coronavirus cases from July 1 through Thursday. The new cases since Friday are on track to surpass that if the numbers continue trending upwards this week.
The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were responsible for nearly 40% of all sequenced samples in the county as of Friday, officials said, and the CDC estimates they account for 70% of cases nationwide.
But despite their contagiousness and ability to evade immunity — fully vaccinated and boosted people, or those who had a recent infection, are vulnerable to breakthrough reinfections — BA.4 and BA.5 are less likely to cause severe disease and death than their predecessors, officials have said.
The new numbers, though, will likely push the county closer to entering the “high” community transmission tier, though the health department has yet to confirm that status because of the delays in data reporting.
The criteria for determining a county's transmission, as defined by the CDC, is threefold: new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, new coronavirus hospitalizations per 100,000 people over the past seven days, and the percent of staffed inpatient hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.
Though all three factors are important, county health officials have repeatedly pointed to the rate of coronavirus hospital admissions as a key indicator in determining the county's CDC transmission tier.
L.A. County was still in the “medium” virus activity level as of Thursday, with its seven-day average of new coronavirus-related hospital admissions at 8.4 per 100,000 residents. It will enter the “high” category if that metric hits 10 new admissions per 100,000 residents.
The county was on pace to reach that unenviable distinction by this Thursday, Ferrer said last week, though she stressed it was an estimate that could change dramatically based on admission numbers in the coming days.
The health department reported 2,035 hospital patients countywide on Friday and Saturday had tested positive for the virus, but the department has yet to release numbers for the following two days, again citing delayed reporting.
Though the health department declined to comment on the most recent numbers, a department spokesperson said via email that updates on hospitalization statistics and the county's community transmission tier will likely be announced during the county's weekly virus update set for Thursday.