Los Angeles County is seeing what some are calling a mini-surge of new COVID-19 infections. Variants like the Delta variant are a major cause.
New COVID-19 infections climbed over the 500 mark once again on Wednesday when the county reported 515 new cases. There were more than 600 new cases reported on Saturday. That’s triple the number of new cases compared to LA county’s numbers from the middle of June.
The county confirmed eight COVID deaths on Wednesday as well.
“After a period of time of not seeing any patients with coronavirus, I am back to seeing patients that are positive and patients that are being hospitalized for COVID,” said Dr. Angelique Campen, an emergency medicine physician at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.
According to Campen, the people who are getting sick and being hospitalized tend to be the unvaccinated.
Campen is not the only one worried. County health officials are "strongly" recommending everyone wear masks in indoor public places because of the spread of a highly contagious virus mutation.
"Until we better understand how and to who the ‘Delta’ variant is spreading, everyone should focus on maximum protection with minimum interruption to routine as all businesses operate without other restrictions like physical distancing and capacity limits," according to a Department of Public Health statement from June.
Health officials pointed to masks and increased vaccinations as a way to prevent the spread of the Delta variant and hospitalizations.
Ferrer told KNX, "While these vaccines provide a powerful, powerful protection to people who are fully vaccinated, we do have breakthrough cases." Wearing a mask can help prevent breakthrough cases, on top of getting vaccinated.
Campen urged people who have not been vaccinated to get the jab.