The range of strength of the delta variant becomes clearer and more frightening. Deepening Impact on LA County – Daily Bulletin

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations exceeded 1,000 in Los Angeles County on Friday, July 30, reaching that level for the first time since May. This is because the Delta variant has expanded the reach of the resurrection, revealing new insights into how new and dangerous it has become. An additional 3,606 new cases were reported — daily numbers not seen since February.

According to the Public Health Service, five more people were killed, the county’s total casualties reached 24,676, and the total number of infected people increased to 1,297,032.

The county-wide outbreak has not yet resulted in the overwhelming number of hospitalizations reported last in January, when local health centers were filled with more than 8,000 people infected with the virus. And experts say it won’t happen.

However, nevertheless, the increase in case numbers is of deep concern to public health professionals, and hospitals are already on the rise in emergency rooms and ICUs, leading to more visits. We are preparing for this.

The main factors working in recent outbreaks where officials are at stake:

– Nearly 4 million people in the county remain unvaccinated.

– Delta mutants are much more contagious and spread more rapidly.When

– Federal officials have confirmed that vaccinated people can not only catch a variant of Delta, but also unknowingly spread it.

According to the state’s Friday tally, the total number of hospitalizations was 1,008, an increase of 17 from Thursday.

Such daily increases ranged from 10 to 80 in recent weeks, following the states that lifted most COVID-19 restrictions on June 15.

Barbara Ferrer, director of public health at Los Angeles County, said the current surge does not appear to be rising at the same rate as the new daily surge, at least for now. It increased by 180%.

“Few of our cases are seriously ill,” Feller added.

However, authorities are closely monitoring the number of admissions to intensive care units in public and private hospitals. On June 8, the number of patients admitted to the ICU was 45. By Friday, that number had increased to 232.

Feller pointed out that 0.21% of positive cases are actually hospitalized. This is far from almost 6% of the positive cases that were finally hospitalized during the huge winter surge.

Feller also said this week that some patients admitted with COVID-19 first came to the hospital because of an illness unrelated to the virus. They were found to be infected only during the initial hospitalization screening.

Nonetheless, the hospital appeared ready for further growth, boosted by the dull facts. As Feller pointed out this week, “Science on this variant shows that it is different from previous variants of COVID. It replicates faster and more efficiently in airway cells, which means that infected people Every time you cough, sneeze, or scream, you can spread up to 1,000 times more virus particles than you did a year ago. “

At the Providence Hospitals in Torrance and San Pedro, canopies have been re-added outside the emergency department as a precautionary measure, but are not currently being actively deployed, according to spokeswoman Patricia Adem.

“When we reached that point, we had to prepare for external triage,” Aidem said.

California Public Health Service officials advised the hospital on Tuesday not to change the visit guidelines at this time, Adem said. Still, the admin was evaluating it.

In Pasadena, Huntington Hospital was busy again, the number of COVID-19 inpatients increased, and 16 inpatients and 3 ICUs were admitted.

“We were forced during the terrible winter surge, so we strongly hope that we don’t have to be close to our visitors. Lulu Rosales, RN, and Director of Hospital Excellence, Engagement, and Patient Experience. “But our top priority is patient and staff safety. As we have done through this pandemic, we rely on science, clinical knowledge, and available risk information to communicate safe visit practices. To do.”

A similar assessment was underway at the Diginity Health hospital.

“Although access may need to be restricted in new cases, the majority of Dignity Health Hospitals now allow visitors,” said Dr. Nicholas Testa, Principal Physician Executive at Dignity Health Southern. “California department hospitals routinely reassess the need to restrict access and change processes, with restrictions in place to ensure the safety of all.”

Meanwhile, staff are acclimatizing to the rise.

At USC’s Keck Medicine, staff resumed weekly briefings, just as they did during the early peaks of the pandemic, said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stephanie Hall.

“This is unforgiving,” Hall said on Friday. “When information becomes available, we strive to be timely on a daily basis and educate healthcare professionals to understand the latest information is an ongoing effort.”

The tendency to be hospitalized appears to be directly related to the delta mutant and its significantly higher viral load, Hall said.

“It tells us that the virus is so high that even vaccinated individuals are causing symptoms,” Hall said.

All those who died since then had not been vaccinated, Hall said. She said that many who have recovered from a serious illness regret not having been vaccinated.

“What we see in sick patients is that they regret that they should have been vaccinated,” Hall said. “For those who see this as a political issue, I really hope they set it aside and look at the scientific evidence.”

At the Memorial Care Long Beach Medical Center, spokesman Richelle Claveiro Steele said the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations promoted by Delta variants increased “slightly”, especially among unvaccinated people. rice field.

“But overall, the number of COVID patients admitted remains far less than what was seen during the December / January surge,” said the hospital in preparation for the increase.

Authorities are concerned about the rate of spread of the virus in recent weeks. That’s why LA County reinstated its indoor mask requirements earlier this month.

People with so-called breakthrough infections of the delta mutant can spread the virus to others as easily as unvaccinated people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a report released Friday. ..

Vaccines maintain a strong effect on severe illness and death, and infections in vaccinated people are considered to be relatively rare. However, this revelation followed a series of other discoveries about the delta mutant this week, all of which overturned scientists’ understanding of the coronavirus.

In a report released Friday, authorities described a single outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Outbreak studies show that Delta is much more contagious than the original virus and seasonal influenza and is as contagious as chickenpox, according to internal documents circulated within the CDC.

These recent developments, according to the Associated Press, have led US health officials to consider changing their advice on how the country will fight the coronavirus.

Los Angeles County is already there, according to internal documents obtained by the Washington Post, but on a national scale, recommending masks to everyone and requesting vaccines from doctors and other health care workers is a disease control prevention. The report states that it is one of the measures the center is considering.