Is Los Angeles County past the peak of the latest coronavirus surge? While testing is up with the start of the school year, along with a related bump in cases, the county has actually reported 12 percent fewer cases this past week, compared to the prior one.
While hospitalizations seem to be leveling off, deaths in the county jumped 36 percent in the past week. In L.A. County, the mortality rate per 100,000 people is 229. Despite the increase in deaths, experts note that the deaths are the most lagging indicator.
Health officials are expected to give another update on numbers and percentages Thursday.
A CDC study of recent L.A. County cases examined how the summer surge affected residents. In it, the CDC found that unvaccinated Angelenos were five times more likely to get infected and 29 times more likely to be hospitalized if they contracted the virus.
The population-based analysis released on Tuesday concluded that full vaccination led to fewer hospitalizations, fewer admissions to the ICU and fewer deaths brought on by COVID-19.
“The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is highly transmissible and became the predominant variant in Los Angeles County during May–July 2021,” the CDC said in its final report. “During this period, SARS-CoV-2 cases and hospitalizations increased substantially, most notably among unvaccinated persons.”
The study examined cases between May 1 and July 25, 2021. During the time period there were more than 43,127 cases of the virus. Of those cases, 3.3 percent were among fully vaccinated people and 71.4 percent were among those who were unvaccinated.
While the FDA has fully approved Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine for those 16 and older, it may be too soon to tell whether that authorization will prompt greater demand from Americans.
As of Wednesday, 100,317 patients were hospitalized with confirmed cases of the coronavirus across the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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