LOS ANGELES (CNS) – This is by no means an “increase”, but COVID-19 transmission continues to be widespread in Los Angeles County, the director of public health said Thursday, noting an increase in key indicators used to track virus, and warning of the sudden increased presence of another, even more communicative option.
In pure numbers, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced another 2,335 COVID infections in the county on Thursday. The average daily number of new cases registered by the county in the last seven days rose to 1,764, compared to 1,261 in the previous week, she said.
The average daily number of cases is approximately three times the number a month ago, Ferrer said.
She also noted small but steady increases in the last week in the number of COVID-positive people in county hospitals. The number rose to 249 on Thursday, from 235 on Wednesday. The number of these patients treated in intensive care was 30, compared to 28 days earlier.
Ferrer noted that these figures are still relatively low compared to winter figures of more than 8,000. She attributes widespread vaccination, therapies and immunity to previous infection to prevent infected people from being hospitalized.
In recent weeks, health officials have warned that the growing number of cases may actually be higher than the number of test results – as many people test at home and may not report the results to the county. And many others may not be tested at all because they are not seriously ill.
Hoping to counteract these gaps, the county is monitoring COVID concentrations in four wastewater systems in the area. The latest results show that the average concentration of the virus found in most of these systems has risen sharply, with two showing almost twice the percentage two weeks ago and a third showing a sharp rise. But the fourth observed system actually showed a small decrease.
“This suggests that community transmission is increasing in the areas covered by these sewage systems,” Ferrer said.
She also noted an increase in epidemics in shelters for homeless and skilled nurses, along with an earlier increase in cases among students and staff after the spring break.
According to Ferrer, the infectious sub-variant BA.2 of COVID-19 is now responsible for 88% of local cases that have undergone special testing to identify variants. BA.2 has been accused of increasing the number of infections at the local and national levels, with officials claiming that it is exponentially more portable than the omicron variant, which fueled the winter jump in cases.
But now there is another option to worry about. Earlier, experts identified a shoot of BA.2 called BA.2.12.1, and now it is rapidly increasing its grip. This new shoot was found in 7% of infections in Los Angeles County that were tested in the week ending April 9 – compared to 3% the previous week.
Ferrer said government officials have estimated that BA.2.12.1 could account for half of all infections in California within a few days. She said that experts have estimated that BA.2.12.1 is approximately 20% to 30% more infectious than BA.2.
“It could quickly become the dominant strain in the United States,” Ferrer said, noting that the new shoot was found to account for 58 percent of the cases tested in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico.
It is not yet known whether BA.2.12.1 causes more severe disease or may be more resistant to vaccines.
2,335 new cases reported on Thursday increased the total number of counties in the entire pandemic to 2,869,785. Eight more virus-related deaths were reported on Thursday, raising the number of deaths in the county from the virus to 31,959.
The average daily percentage of people tested positive for the virus was 1.8% as of Thursday.
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