The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported over 3,200 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, the highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases since February.
The county also reported almost a thousand new hospitalizations.
The new daily cases bring the total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to 1,293,450. Today's numbers are also 17 percent higher than last week’s number.
Health officials noted 17 people have died from the virus as of July 27, bringing the county's death toll up to 24,675.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said despite the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, there are encouraging trends.
“Our daily test positivity rate is 5.17 percent. This is an increase of less than half a percentage point from last week’s 4.37 percent,” Dr. Ferrer said. ”This suggests to us that perhaps the rate of increase may be stabilizing. “
She added that between April and June 96 percent of those who died from COVID-19 were unvaccinated.
Of the county's 4.9 million vaccinated people, only 10,656 have tested positive, 410 were hospitalized and 35 have died.