Coronavirus cases rise in Los Angeles, number of school outbreaks tripled as coronavirus infection rate soar

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer confirmed today that the deadline has been completed. last week: What more contagious Bachelor 2 variant of Corona virus disease-19 “is now the dominant alternative” in the governorate.

The prevalence of the infectious variant is blamed for the increased number of cases locally. Ferrer noted that over the past seven days, the county has averaged 878 new cases per day, up from 660 per day the previous week — an increase of nearly 33%.

The last day’s data has been even more stark, with 1,088 new cases reported today, a number Ferrer says is “below test results” because so many people use home antigen kits and their results go unreported.

Likewise, the rate of people testing positive for the virus has increased slowly, from 0.8% on Tuesday to 1.0% today.

But while the increase in cases is worrying, fortunately the increase has not translated into an increase in the number of hospital patients.

Ferrer said the number of people infected with COVID-19 in county hospitals has remained below 300 — as high as 273 Thursday, according to state numbers.

And the number of daily deaths attributed to the virus continues to decline, with the average number of deaths per day reaching 13 cases last week, compared to 17 deaths per day a week ago.

However, some concern has been expressed about recent increases in outbreaks in schools. The county reported 14 cases last week, including one that Ferrer described as “one of the biggest outbreaks we’ve had since the beginning of the pandemic, I think, in a K-12 school.”

In addition to the size of this single outbreak, Ferrer said: “We have more than tripled the number of new outbreaks. [school] outbreak this week.”

The increase correlates with the prevalence of the BA.2 variant and follows a recent survey of indoor mask use decisions on school campuses.

But Ferrer noted that the test-positivity rate is still very low on school campuses – lower than the district-wide rate.

She emphasized that with a more ferocious variant and fewer layers of protection, there would be more transmission.

“I know people hate these masks, but these masks really helped them,” Ferrer said. “As we see more outbreaks in schools, we have to look at that and not ignore it, and not say, ‘No, I will never wear these masks.'”

The City News Service contributed to this report.