Los Angeles Covid Cases Rise 33% And School Outbreaks Triple As BA.2 Variant Surges

deadline.com:

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer confirmed today what Deadline inferred last week: that the more-infectious BA.2 variant of Covid-19 is “now the predominant variant” in the county.The spread of the infectious variant is being blamed for increases in case numbers locally.

Ferrer noted that over the last seven days, the county has been averaging 878 new cases per day, up from 660 per day the previous week — a roughly 33% increase.

The most recent day’s data is even more stark, with 1,088 new cases being reported today, a number which Ferrer says is “undercount on test results” because many more people are using at-home antigen kits, the results of which are not reported.The rate of people testing positive has likewise slowly climbed, from 0.8% on Tuesday to 1.0% today.But while the increase in cases is disturbing, the rise has thankfully not translated into surges of hospital patients.

Ferrer said the number of Covid-positive patients in county hospitals has remained below 300 — reaching 273 as of Thursday, according to state figures.And the daily number of deaths attributed to the virus continues falling, averaging 13 per day over the past week, compared to 17 per day a week earlier.She expressed some concern about recent increases in school outbreaks, however.