LA County reports 3,318 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 additional deaths on Saturday – CBS Los Angeles

Los Angeles (CBSLA)- On Saturday, the Los Angeles County Public Health Service reported 3,318 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 additional deaths.

According to state statistics, the number of coronavirus cases in hospitals continued to surge in Los Angeles County on Saturday, rising from 1,008 on Friday to 1,071. The number of patients in the intensive care unit decreased by one to 231.

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The new figures came the day after county officials reported 3,606 new cases of COVID-19. This is the largest one-day report since early February. With 3,606 new infections on Friday, the total pandemic to county totaled 1,297,032. According to the Los Angeles County Public Health Service, five more deaths were reported, with a cumulative COVID death toll of 24,676 in the county.

As of Friday, the average daily rate of virus-positive people was 6.3%, up from 5.17% reported Thursday, according to Barbara Ferrer, director of public health.

Feller said Thursday that the rise in positive rates seen in recent weeks and the number of new cases are showing signs of slowing, hoping that the surge could level off. She said hospitalizations are expected to continue to increase as hospitalizations traditionally increase following an overall increase in case numbers.

The county has seen a sharp increase in daily cases, hospitalizations, and positive test rates over the past few weeks, due to the highly infectious delta variant of coronavirus.

As expected from the surge in COVID cases among the general public, the county’s homeless population has also seen a sharp increase in infections in recent weeks. In the week ending Sunday, 111 new cases were identified among the homeless, an increase of 21% over the previous week.

Throughout the pandemic, 7,588 COVID cases were reported among the homeless and 216 died.

“Because of the high community infection rates in our county, vaccination efforts are still very high to reduce the impact of increased infections to the population, including those experiencing homeless people who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. It’s important to us, “Feller said on Friday. “Even if you are already infected with COVID-19 and have recovered, you still need to be vaccinated. There are serious health risks associated with COVID, especially reinfection from viral variants.

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“And if you don’t get a second dose of the double dose vaccine, you don’t get the maximum protection against COVID-19,” she said. “All new data on delta variants show that the vaccine does not provide significant protection unless both doses are given, so get a second dose this weekend.”

As of July 27, of the 4.9 million fully vaccinated inhabitants, 10,656 were virus-positive at a rate of 0.22%, according to county statistics. The rate has increased by 63% since a week ago, but remains statistically low.

Of the vaccinated people, only 410 were hospitalized (0.008%) and only 35 died (0.0007%).

From January 1st to June 30th this year, 99.8% of people who died of COVID-19 were either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, Feller said.

The pace of vaccination has slowed significantly, but Feller says the county has seen a slight increase in the number of people receiving first doses for the second straight week. Between July 19th and 25th, about 70,000 doses were given in the county, an increase of about 7,500 times from the previous week.

Vaccination rates remain low in young residents, especially in the black community. As of July 25, only 30% of black residents aged 16-17 and 18-29 had at least one shot. This is about half the number of white residents. Only 24% of black residents between the ages of 12 and 15 receive at least one dose, which is half the proportion of white residents.

Overall, black residents had the lowest vaccination rate of 46%, Latin Americans 55%, white residents 66%, and Asians 77%.

Of the 10.3 million inhabitants of the county as a whole, 60% have been vaccinated at least once and 52% have been fully vaccinated. About 1.3 million residents under the age of 12 are still not eligible for the vaccine.

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