Hello, it’s Tuesday, June 25th. Here’s what you need to know to start your day off right.
Summer has just begun, but California’s not-too-surprising seasonal COVID crisis is already going strong, driven by the more transmissible FLiRT variants.
KP. 2, KP. 3 and KP. 1. 1 (called FLiRT for the amino acid tweaks that led to the strains’ mutations) account for about 63% of infections, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U. S. has risen from around 20% in late April.
Coronavirus levels discovered in California’s wastewater have risen sharply since early May and are particularly higher than the rest of the United States. The average number of reported cases in Los Angeles County rose to 154 per day for the seven-day high of recent reports. consistently, an accumulation of about 27% from last week. But those numbers are underestimated because they don’t come with at-home tests (or because other people who get COVID haven’t gotten tested yet).
“Taken together, the data points to a resurgence of the coronavirus in the Golden State,” the Times’ Rong-Gong Lin II reported this week. past and is caused by strains that are even more transmissible than those observed in the past. “
More people in Los Angeles County hospitals are testing positive for COVID, though deaths are holding steady at less than one per day on average.
California is one of 15 states with high or very high levels of coronavirus in wastewater, according to the CDC. With just 4 days left in summer, state degrees are already reaching last summer’s peak.
Health officials say it arguably wouldn’t be a surprise to see more COVID cases this summer, as has happened in previous summers. More travel, more gatherings on weekends and holidays, and more indoor gatherings to escape the heat, increasing the chances of contracting the virus. infectious virus.
So how much worse can it get? That is yet to be determined, Lin said.
“Doctors have said that until July 4 we may have a clearer idea of how the rest of the season will go,” he wrote.
As for the fall vaccines, the mRNA-based versions produced by Pfizer and Moderna are expected to be designed as opposed to the KP. 2 variant; Novavax’s protein-based vaccine will target its matrix, JN. 1.
Because FLiRT subvariants are more easily transmitted, doctors recommend others at higher risk for severe COVID-19 infections to take precautions. These include:
The biggest risk of severe COVID-19 remains age, according to the CDC. People with certain underlying physical conditions, such as asthma, cancer, diabetes, and serious heart disease, are also at higher risk.
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Today’s striking photo is by Times photographer Gina Ferazzi, taken from a seven-story boulder on federal land that has become a flashpoint over who will be able to enjoy this component of the Mojave Desert, which has gentrified since the COVID-19 pandemic. .
Have a great day, from the team at Essential California.
Ryan Fonseca, journalist Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor and Saturday reporter Christian Orozco, associate editor Stephanie Chavez, associate editor of Metro Karim Doumar, newsletter manager
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Ryan Fonseca writes the Los Angeles Times’ Essential California newsletter. A lifelong Southern California native, he has worked in Los Angeles County newsrooms, adding radio, documentary, print and television media. Most recently, he was assistant editor of LAist Public Radio. . com and KPCC-FM (89. 3), which covers shipping and mobility. He returns to The Times after applying as an associate web editor for Times Community News, where he helped manage the Internet sites and social media presence of Burbank’s leader, Glendale News. Fonseca studied journalism at Cal State Northridge, where she now teaches the next generation of journalists how to expand their voice and virtual skills.
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