The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 1,113 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, marking the third day in a row of more than 1,000 new reported cases in the county.
The number of new cases is more than double last Wednesday’s 515 reported cases.
Though the reported cases are already concerning to public health officials, the county pointed out that “delays in weekend reporting” could mean the true numbers are even higher.
Officials and health care professionals point to the highly contagious “Delta” variant as the cause behind Los Angeles county’s climbing number of infections.
According to City News Service, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the rising numbers "for sure" reflect the increased presence of the "Delta" variant.
"The numbers are staggering in terms of people who are at risk of being able to get infected."
Hospitals are seeing a shift back toward hospitalizations caused by the virus 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.
As the virus keeps spreading, more mutations become possible. “And those mutations, most of the time, turn out to be inconsequential but when you have enough spread of the virus those mutations begin to add up, and they matter,” said Anne Rimoin of the UCLA Fielding School of Public health.
Four additional people died and 373 people were hospitalized due to COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to the county data.
LA County has already pushed back its goal of getting 80 percent of all residents 16 and older at least partially vaccinated from the original goal of June. Ferrer now says the "best-case" scenario is reaching "herd immunity" by early fall.
The county has recommended wearing masks indoors to stop the spread of the Delta variant until a greater number of Angelenos are vaccinated. But, mask-wearing rules were among the restrictions to ease considerably when the state lifted the vast majority of its pandemic restrictions on June 15. The recommendation to wear a mask indoors is just that, not an official health order.
Public health officials remain most concerned about the unvaccinated.
"If you’re fully vaccinated, you’re safe. If you’re not fully vaccinated, that’s a completely different kettle of fish, and with the Delta variant you need to be very careful about exposures," said Dr. George Rutherford, the director of prevention and public health group at UCSF.
"As cases increase, the urgency to get more people vaccinated is rising. Nearly 100% of new cases are occurring among those not fully vaccinated," Ferrer said in a statement over the weekend.