Los Angeles County is expected to move this week into the category of “high transmission rates” related to the coronavirus.
State officials say there are 1,014 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Los Angeles County hospitals. That number dropped among seven other people a day after crossing the 1,000 mark, according to the state’s most recent data.
On Friday, the county’s public fitness arm reported 6,416 new COVID-19 cases and 18 more coronavirus deaths, the most virus deaths since last March. These numbers have brought the county’s cumulative totals to 3,160,032 cases and 32,413 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Health officials said most of the deaths occurred in other people with at least one underlying physical condition, mainly hypertension, diabetes and heart disease.
The average daily rate of other people testing positive for the virus was 15. 7 percent on Friday. The county does not report COVID data on weekends.
The number of hospitals has increased in recent months, a buildup that health officials have attributed to the immediate new spread of the virus attributable to infectious variants BA. 4 and BA. 5, which the government says are highly contagious and capable of reinfecting the previous ones. patients. .
The number of other people hospitalized for coronavirus in Orange County rose to 280 and 210 in Riverside County.
A change to “high” transmissibility could amount to a universal mandate to wear a mask indoors until the end of the month. The county is lately at the “average” point of viral activity, as explained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It will succeed in the “high” category if the seven-day average of new COVID-related hospital admissions is successful in 10 consistent with a population of 100,000.
If the county remains at this peak for two consecutive weeks, it will reimpose a mandatory court order to wear masks indoors. According to the existing schedule, this would be July 29.