COVID-19 Infections, Delta Variant Continue Trending Upward in L.A. County

Authorities documented seven new COVID-19 infections in Pasadena on Thursday, as the rate of infections county-wide climbed to levels not seen in more than two months.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Pasadena has recorded 113,574 cases of the virus and 349 deaths, according to Pasadena Public Health Department data. No new fatalities have been added to the local death toll since June 3.

After reaching a low point of 0.7 just over a month ago, the number of daily infections reported over the prior week in Pasadena had increased to 4.1.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported the largest number of infections in a single day since mid-April at 506.

“This is more than a doubling of new cases in two weeks,” the agency said in a written statement. “The County’s daily test positivity rate is 1.2%, an increase from last week’s rate of 0.7%.”

A total of 1,250,717 COVID-19 cases had been detected in L.A. County, the agency said in a written statement. Seventy-three more deaths were documented on Thursday, raising the county’s pandemic total to 24,489.

Over the past week, 47% of all viruses genetically sequenced in the county have been of the highly contagious and extra virulent Delta variant, representing a doubling, county health officials said.

“The rising proportion of Delta among sequenced variants of concern is consistent with what other parts of the U.S. are seeing and represents increased circulation of the variant,” the statement said. “Given that 4 million residents in L.A. County are not yet vaccinated, the risk of increased spread is very real.”

“And while emerging data affirms that fully vaccinated people are well protected from severe infections with Delta variants, people with only one vaccine are not as well-protected, and there is increasing evidence that a very small number of fully vaccinated individuals can become infected and may be able to infect others,” the statement warned. “Nonetheless, vaccines remain the most important tool to keep COVID-19 transmission and the incubation of variants low, and the pandemic today is almost entirely among unvaccinated individuals.”

County officials reported 245 COVID-19 patients hospitalized county-wide on Thursday, with 28% of them being treated in intensive care units.

State public health officials reported 1,698 new infections on Tuesday, attributing some of the cases to a data backlog. The state’s total stood at 3,712,152.

Backlogged cases were expected to continue coming in through Monday.

Another 73 deaths raised the overall total to 63,096, according to California Public Health Department records.

The statewide average positivity rate continued slowly climbing to 1.4%.

As of Thursday, L.A. County accounted for 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 39% of the state’s fatalities.