After the elimination of most of the restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Los Angeles health authorities reported Friday that cases of the virus increased by 40% in compared to the previous week.
Although Los Angeles County remains at a “low concern” level, this week the metrics could change. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) urges residents to be cautious so they do not become infected or spread the virus.
The weekly average number of people sick with the virus per hour is 126 new cases for each 100,000 residents, meaning the county is again experiencing a high rate of transmission for the first time since early March.
The latest data available from the DPH reported on Friday that there are 203 people with Covid-19 hospitalized. Additionally, 4 deaths and 2 550 new positive cases were reported. All the deceased were older than 65 years old and had pre-existing conditions.
The director of the DPH, Bárbara Ferrer said that during this period of high transmission and the potential for more infectious variants, one of the best and easiest safety measures is to wear a well-fitting, high-filtration mask or respirator when people are indoors in company. from other individuals.
“This is especially true if someone is at increased risk of serious illness, or lives or works with someone who is at elevated risk,” Ferrer said.
“With cases on the rise, the potential for more contagious variants, and many opportunities for exposure, this is a good time to make the decision to get vaccinated or boosted and wear a mask or respirator when be indoors with other people”.
The highly contagious subvariant Ómicron BA.2 is now identified in the 82% of recent Los Angeles County samples, a slight increase from the previous week.
Additionally, 7% of sequenced samples were identified as BA.2.12.1 —a sublineage strain of BA.2— during the week ending on April 9, down from 3% in the previous seven-day period. The DPH, through model estimates, anticipates that the BA.2.12 .1 will represent 50% of positive cases in California within days.
DPH added that the last week of April saw a doubling of reports at workplaces with clusters of infections compared to the previous week. Among the 82 cluster reports received between the 20 and 26 in April, the three main sectors represented were in the areas of manufacturing, retail and information, which together represented 55% of the total cluster reports.
Among subsectors, the top four industries were food and beverage stores, electronics and appliance stores, transportation equipment manufacturing, and film and sound recording industries.
Schools from pre-kindergarten to grade 12 they are also experiencing small increases in outbreaks.
During the seven-day period ending on 19 in April, six new outbreaks opened in classrooms, all in primary schools. This is double the number opened the previous week and is close to the threshold of greatest concern, which is eight new outbreaks in classrooms opened in the last seven days.
Other areas of vulnerability are places where groups of people congregate for long periods of time, such as Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs) and among the homeless.
While not yet of great concern , outbreaks at SNFs and sites that serve the homeless have recently started to increase. For the latest seven-day reporting period ending April 26, six new outbreaks occurred in skilled nursing facilities and 11 new outbreaks at sites serving people without home, nine of which are in protected settings.
To date, the total number of deaths in Los Angeles County is from 31,959. 2,872,203 positive cases of Covid-19 in all areas of Los Angeles County. Currently the positivity rate is 1.8%.
Test results are available for more than 11,847,700 people, with the 22% of people testing positive.
The subvariant BA.2 predominates
At the national level, the subvariant BA.2 is the predominant lineage, although there is increasing circulation of a recently identified sublineage strain BA.2.12.one. For the week ending April 2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that BA.2 accounted for the 68% of samples sequenced in the United States and BA.2.12. 1 represented approximately 29% of the samples sequenced from the same week.
It is also estimated that the sublineage BA.2.12.1 is between a 22% and a 30% more transmissible than BA.2, and could quickly become the dominant strain in the country.