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Health Officials Will “Highly Recommend” Masks Inside If Covid Cases Rise In LA County

Sam Houston
Health Officials Will "Highly Recommend" Masks

Health Officials Will "Highly Recommend" Masks

LOS ANGELES — The director of public health for Los Angeles County stated on Friday that the county is continuing to see increases in COVID-19 infection and hospitalisation rates. He also issued a warning that two newly emerging variants of the virus threaten to fuel an increase in cases during the fall and winter seasons.

According to Barbara Ferrer, the county had an average of approximately 1,300 new COVID cases each day during the previous week. This number represents an increase from approximately 1,000 new cases per day during the week prior. According to what she reported, the daily average number of cases has been “Since the beginning of November, the rate of growth has been “slowly but steadily increasing.”

According to Ferrer, the number of infections is also increasing and has reached a weekly average of 86 cases per 100,000 residents. This is an increase from two weeks ago when the rate was 65 cases per 100,000 residents.

If this figure averages out to 100 instances per 100,000 residents per week, the county will once more be required to take action “I would “highly recommend” that people wear masks whenever they are inside. Wearing a mask indoors is currently a matter of personal preference unless a certain location or business chooses to mandate their use.

Health Officials Will Highly Recommend Masks

Ferrer also noted an increase in the average daily number of hospital admissions related to COVID. The average number of COVID-related hospital admissions rose to 77 the week before last from 65 the week before that.

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Virus-related deaths are averaging about seven per day, which is a decrease from 10-12 per day in early November. However, Ferrer said that deaths are considered a lagging indicator, which means that the numbers could rise in the coming weeks as a response to the increases in infections and hospitalizations.

Health officials have been expressing concern about the possibility of a COVID outbreak this winter, which would be comparable to the outbreaks that occurred during the winter months of the previous two years. They noted that cooler temperatures cause more people to spend time indoors, which results in more crowded spaces that have less ventilation. These are conditions that are ideal for the spread of viruses.

According to Ferrer, two recently discovered variants of the COVID virus, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are beginning to spread more rapidly in the county. These variants now account for approximately 17% of all virus specimens that are subjected to specialised sequencing to identify specific infection strains. That’s more than twice as fast as it was back in the middle of October.

According to Ferrer, federal health authorities believe that the BQ variants are likely to cause an “increase rapidly” over the next few weeks, and there is a chance that it will soon account for more than one-third of all infections.

“Many are predicting that these strains, which are highly transmissible, will likely drive an increase in cases this fall and winter,” she said. “[T]here is a strong possibility that this will occur.” The currently available information, according to her, “It is believed that the ‘bivalent’ vaccine booster, which was developed specifically to combat Omicron-based virus variants, is effective against the BQ variants.

This was accomplished by engineering the vaccine so that it could recognise and neutralise the virus. However, she stated that the percentage of eligible residents receiving the new booster remains very low and that officials in the health department are working to increase their public outreach efforts to encourage more people to get the shot.

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Since the beginning of the pandemic, Los Angeles County has reported a total of 3,501,782 cases of COVID-19 infection and 34,039 deaths related to the virus. On Thursday, the county reported 1,595 new COVID-19 infections and eight additional deaths linked to the virus.

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the daily case numbers that are released by the county are an underestimate of the actual number of infections that are occurring because many residents rely on at-home tests and do not report the results of those tests to county health officials.

As of this past Thursday, the seven-day moving average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 5.8%.

According to figures provided by the state, the number of COVID-positive patients treated in hospitals located within Los Angeles County decreased from 492 on Wednesday to 464 on Thursday. Of those patients, 50 were being treated in intensive care units, an increase from the 43 who were receiving treatment there the day before.

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