Los Angeles Covid Cases Rise 33% and School Outbreaks Triple as BA.2 Variant Increase

Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, today confirmed Deadline’s conclusion last week: that the most contagious BA.2 variant of Covid-19 is “currently the preferred variant” in the county.

The spread of the infectious variant is attributed to the increase in the number of local cases. Ferrer noted that for the past seven days, an average of 878 new cases per day in the county continued, increasing by about 33% from 660 per day in the previous week.

The latest data is even sharper, with 1,088 new cases reported today, some of which Ferrer said “do not count with the test results” because more people are using antigen kits at home and their results are not reported.

The proportion of people who tested positive also rose slowly, rising from 0.8% on Tuesday to 1.0% today.

But while the increase in cases is alarming, fortunately the increase does not translate into an increase in the number of hospitalized patients.

Ferrer said that according to state figures, the number of Kovid-positive patients in hospitals in the country remained below 300 and reached 273 as of Thursday.

And the daily death toll from the virus continues to drop, averaging 13 days last week from 17 a week ago.

However, he has expressed some concerns about the recent increase in outbursts in schools. The country announced a total of 14 last week, with Ferrer for example calling it “one of the biggest explosions we’ve had since the pandemic started, I think in a K-12 school.”

And beyond the scale of this epidemic, Ferrer said, “We have tripled the number of new ones.” [school] Explosions this week”

The increase is related to the spread of the BA.2 sub-variant and will be followed by the removal of the requirement to wear masks indoors on school campuses.

However, Ferrer noted that the rate of taking the exam on school campuses is very low, lower than the rate nationwide.

“So when you see an increase in bursts, it means there are more transmissions in schools than in the past,” he said, noting that there will be more transmissions with a more viral version and less layers of protection.

“I know people hate these masks, but these masks have really helped,” Ferrer said. “As we see the prevalence increasing in schools, we should look at this and not cancel, say, ‘No, I will never wear these masks again.’ We will provide layers of protection when you need it.”

City News Service contributed to this report.