County Reports Largest Number Of COVID Cases In Month; But No Surge Feared

Los Angeles County today reported its highest daily number of new COVID-19 infections since mid-May, and it is also seeing slight but noticeable increases in hospitalizations and testing-positivity rates, but the public health director said she is not immediately concerned about a virus surge.

“Obviously the numbers are really, really low still. Really low,”

Barbara Ferrer said. “Case rates are low, test positivity is low. You all remember how high those numbers have been for us. So I’m not concerned at all about a surge. What I want to do is, I want to make sure that we address any disproportionality early on by identifying those places where we’re seeing pockets of increase.”

More concerning, she said, is the fact that Black residents appear to be bearing the brunt of the increases, with a “slight but perceptible rise” in case rates and a slight increase in hospitalizations. Death rates are still declining among all ethnic groups, but the Black community continues to have “persistently higher” rates of dying from COVID.

On Wednesday. Dr. Kimberly Shriner, an infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital urged. people to get vaccinated as soon as possible amid the threat of the new COVID-19 variant called Delta.

Although the Delta variant has been detected in Los Angeles County, a city spokesperson said Wednesday no cases have as yet been detected in Pasadena.

Founder and director of Huntington’s Phil Simon Clinic, Shriner said unvaccinated individuals should continue wearing masks since they are at very high risk of contracting the new coronavirus variant.

In a video posted online, Shriner said the new Delta variant is a “very aggressive and very severe form of COVID-19,” and the only protection against it is to be vaccinated.

She stressed the vaccines are effective and safe, and they are likely to protect people from even the most severe forms of COVID-19.

“So please, there is some urgency in this right now,” Shriner said in the video. “We are enjoying a nice summer. We want the fall to be equally safe so that we can finally have some nice holidays with our families. If you are not vaccinated, please seriously consider getting vaccinated, but if you remain unvaccinated, then please wear a mask when you are around individuals who you don’t know their vaccine status.”

County officials on Thursday reported continued detection of the Delta variant, which is considered responsible for mass outbreaks in India and parts of the United Kingdom, and is raising concern domestically, with federal authorities estimating it is responsible for 21% of all current COVID infections nationwide.

As of last week, Los Angeles County had identified 64 cases of the Delta variant. On Thursday, Ferrer said a total of 123 cases had been identified. Due to the limited amount of specific testing being done to identify variants, the numbers cannot be used to estimate overall numbers of such infections countywide.

But Ferrer said the Delta variant continues to represent a larger portion of all COVID mutations detected in the county.

“We can take note of the proportion of sequenced variants of concern … that are represented by Delta variants, and we can note in places where we’re seeking variants, we’re finding more infections that are caused by Delta variants,” she said. “And this likely means that there are more Delta variants in the community.”

She noted that of all the 123 Delta cases that have been identified, 49 were residents of Palmdale or Lancaster, and 14 of them came from one household. Of the cases, 110 were unvaccinated patients, three were partially vaccinated and 10 were fully vaccinated. None of the fully vaccinated patients had to be hospitalized, while two of the unvaccinated people were. None of the patients has died.