Los Angeles Covid Cases Rise 35% In Past Week, Test Positivity Nearing Peak Of Last Summer

deadline.com:

If three in a row is a trend, what’s 5 in a row? “After a relatively calm summer, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) is reporting a rise in measures of Covid-19 transmission for the fifth consecutive week,” the department announced today. “The increase in Covid-19 circulation is likely the combined result of multiple factors, including summer travel, return to school, and the emergence of new Covid-19 variant strains,” the official statement reads.

But, officials, cautioned, “Compared to other points during the pandemic, hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low.”  The average of 512 daily cases this week is a nearly 35% increase over last week week.

Reported cases do not include home tests, so it’s fairly certain that the actual number of Covid infections is much higher. Possibly more important, test positivity has risen to 14%, a not insignificant number.

That’s above the 13.8% test positivity peak last winter and very close to the peak of 15.64% the county saw last summer. Based on the most recent variant sequencing in Los Angeles County as of July 22, XBB.1.5 and EG.5 now account for nearly equal proportions of cases.