After climbing for weeks, Covid-related hospitalizations seem to be leveling off in the county of Los Angeles. This, after numbers hit a high, with a latest surge of close to 1,800 people about a week ago.
"It looks to be that you know, we've leveled off. We're still at far too high a level of community spread. We want to get it considerably down,” said Dr. Paul Simon, L.A. County's chief science officer.
"The only trepidation I have is that all the kids going back to school, we don't quite know what the impact of that will be. But we're hopeful with the measures that - you know- we've encouraged schools to take, that the schools will be a safe environment and that we won't see a bump up. But we're watching closely over the next few weeks."
Simon said he is hopeful that demand for the COVID-19 vaccine will go up now that the FDA has granted full authorization for the Pfizer vaccine.
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He said it is unlikely that the world will be able to get rid of COVID in the "foreseeable future,” but that if enough people are vaccinated, infections, hospitalizations and deaths could become "rare events."
Earlier this year U.S. officials were shooting for 80 percent vaccine coverage among eligible residents by the end of June. That's been pushed back several times since and officials said 80 percent may no longer be high enough amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
New numbers released by the L.A. County Department of Public Health indicate 2,331 new COVID-19 cases, seven new deaths and 1,722 current hospitalizations. To date, about 73 percent of Angelinos 12 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
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