Cases of COVID-19 are increasing among unvaccinated adolescents and Latino Americans

In Los Angeles County, the recent surge in COVID-19 patients heading to hospitals has slowed, but it’s still unclear if it has crossed another peak, Barbara Ferrer, head of the County Public Health Service. Said on Thursday.

“It’s hard to know,” Feller said, as many people return to their daily lives and children and teachers return to school with highly infectious delta mutants circulating in the county. There are many risks now. “

According to Feller, LA County has seen a 15% decrease in coronavirus cases over the past week, but warned that the numbers would remain relatively high as more people were tested for the virus.

Despite the recent decline, cases continue to increase among unvaccinated children and teens, some of whom are too young to qualify for firing. In recent weeks, the weekly case rate of unvaccinated children and teens has increased from 73 to 307 per 100,000, according to Feller.

Unvaccinated adults in LA County remain more likely to be infected with the coronavirus than children. For every 100,000 unvaccinated adults over the age of 50, 399 have been infected with the coronavirus in the last week. Among unvaccinated young adults, 510 did. Also, hospitalization and mortality with COVID-19 remains much lower among children than adults.

Vaccinated people had a much lower risk of getting the coronavirus. Unvaccinated young adults were four times more at risk of coronavirus-positive testing than vaccinated adults, while unvaccinated older people were five times more at risk.

Feller said early data about the school was “slightly calm.”

Between Sunday and Wednesday, outbreaks were confirmed in five schools involving 27 students and 3 staff, exposing 135 people. By comparison, when many schools reopened in the fall semester last week, three outbreaks involving 25 students and 60 staff were identified, and 79 were infected with other schools.

“When children return to school or other activities, they only have more contact,” so an increase in viral infections among children was expected.

“The problem for us is to ensure that the significant increase in cases is mitigated by taking appropriate measures when possible,” said Feller, who said school children wore masks indoors and were teenagers. I confirmed that I would vaccinate adults.

She also recommended wearing a mask in crowded outdoor situations.

“If we want to reduce the number of children infected, we have to do a lot. First, start with all the adults around, and the teens around us are completely vaccinated. You need to get it. It really reduces the chances of getting your child or someone else’s child, “Feller said.

According to county statistics, both case numbers and hospitalization rates have skyrocketed, even among unvaccinated Latino Americans. Feller said he was concerned that the group’s case rate had increased by 200% since last month and that the department would investigate possible causes.

According to Feller, the number of deaths lagging behind cases and hospitalizations has increased by about 6% in the past week as a sign of an increase or decrease in the virus. Currently, about 18 COVID-19 deaths are reported per day.

According to the latest state statistics, Los Angeles County had 1,723 patients admitted with confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 451 in the intensive care unit. After the rise earlier this week, hospitalizations declined for the second straight day. I saw it well.

California at the state level Report on Thursday Eighty-six patients were hospitalized with confirmed cases of the virus, and 1,982 were in the intensive care unit.

The latest figures are down slightly from the previous day, but remain at much higher levels than in mid-July, when less than 3,000 patients across California were hospitalized for confirmed cases of the virus.

Los Angeles County and state-wide numbers appear to have begun to stabilize in recent weeks, said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

“It could indicate that things may be slowly starting to move in the right direction,” Brewer said. Whether COVID-19 will return in the fall (a common feature of the virus spread by respiratory droplets) depends on the vaccination rate and other protective procedures such as masks and distances.

“If people continue to take these steps, the respiratory virus will not necessarily increase significantly,” he said.

The surge in summer has plunged California hospitals into a pandemic for a year and a half.

“We can find beds and spaces for patients. The challenge is to find staff to take care of them,” said Jan Emerson-Shea, a spokesman for California Hospital Assn. As health care workers suffer from burnout, “Some are on long vacations absent because they need to be recharged. Some are quitting hospital jobs altogether.”

Hospitals seek state exemptions from the required nurse-patient ratio, postpone some medical procedures, or The coveted pool The number of nurses on the move-if they could catch them-but the burden of personnel could also lead to longer waiting times in the emergency room, she said.

Nursing unions are also making mistakes in hospitals nationwide To drive away workers, claiming that the problem precedes the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement Thursday, the National Nurses United said the hospital industry “is weeping falsely when these intolerable working conditions are entirely their fault.”

Over 64% of Californians have been vaccinated at least once with the COVID-19 vaccine, and 56% have been fully vaccinated. Times tracker. Immunization rates are highest in the Bay Area, lagging behind in the northernmost regions of the state and the San Joaquin Valley.

Despite concerns about breakthroughs among vaccinated people, health officials continue to emphasize that vaccines provide strong protection against severe illness and death.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study As of July 25, unvaccinated people were 4.9 times more likely to be infected with the virus and 29.2 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who were fully vaccinated in LA County. rice field.

In reality, “vaccines cannot provide 100% protection from infection, hospitalization, or death,” Ferrer said, especially when the infection is high in the community. However, “fully vaccinated people continue to be very well protected from hospitalization and are very unlikely to die of COVID.”

As of Tuesday, only 0.63% of fully vaccinated people in LA County were virus-positive, 0.017% were hospitalized, 0.0018% died, and a total of 95 people died throughout the county.

A county review found that hospitalized and vaccinated patients were much more likely to have chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure than unvaccinated patients.

To control the virus, many California employers insisted that workers be vaccinated. Los Angeles recently passed an ordinance requiring city officials to fire by October 5, unless medical or religious exemptions were approved. LA is also considering alternative measures that require at least partial vaccination to enter indoor restaurants, bars and other places.

Both have spurred fierce opposition from LA workers and residents who are reluctant to vaccinate. One LA firefighter in a LAFD hat and shirt, I recorded my video He accused the city officials of his duties and said he and other firefighters had hired a lawyer. The video prompted an investigation into whether he violated city rules.

Newly released result According to a poll by AP Communications-NORC Public Relations Center, 50% of the workers surveyed agree to require employees who go directly to work to be fully vaccinated with COVID-19, and 52% have mask requirements. I found that I support. Work place.

Pollsters asked if they would support vaccination requirements for certain categories of workers, including health workers, kindergarten-to-high school teachers, civil servants, the military, and employees interacting with civil servants. Was a lot.

The virus has hit people in the poorest areas of Los Angeles County, with an overall mortality rate more than three times higher than in the richest areas. County figures..

Black and Latin residents of LA County died of the virus at a higher rate than white and Asian residents during the pandemic process. However, in the last week, Feller pointed out that the mortality rates of unvaccinated white adults and teens in the county are higher than those of other unvaccinated groups.

Homeless people have also been hit by a recent surge. Between August 16 and August 22, the public health department investigated seven outbreaks that affected detainees, five of which occurred in homeless shelters. During the pandemic, the majority of more than 8,100 homeless people known to have acquired COVID-19 were protected. Recent reports..