“While cases in many areas remain low,” the county’s Department of Public Health said Friday that “rallies for Ramadan, Easter, Easter and the spring break could eventually lead to more cases and cases.” The good news is that, even with the increase in the number of cases and positive tests, the new variant and the restrictions recently lifted, hospitalizations and deaths show no signs of increasing. The positive 7-day test of the area has increased by 50% since Tuesday, from 0.8% to 1.2% today. This type of jump in 7 days on average is worth noting, although the rates are still very low. The cases have increased even more. On Tuesday, Los Angeles County reported 708 new cases. Today, the number had risen 78% to 1,263 new cases, from 1,088 yesterday. “This increase in cases is likely due to the more easily transmitted BA.2 subtype, which continues to grow in Los Angeles County,” LADPH said in a statement. The number of new cases in the county has risen sharply this week, although the number of daily tests has dropped. This is generally a strong indication of increasing transmission in an area. Last Friday, the county tested about 110,000 people every 24 hours. Today, that number had dropped to just under 90,000 tests a day. Meanwhile, the BA.2 Omicron variant – believed to be 10% more contagious than the already more contagious original Omicron – has become dominant in the region. City officials said Thursday that BA.2 accounted for 47% of all county cases that underwent special tests to detect variants of Covid, but said the rate was likely higher, as data reflect cases from two weeks ago. . The latest CDC data support them. The center’s Variant Proportions monitoring toolkit this week showed that, in the three states of California, Nevada, and Arizona, BA.2 now accounts for 75% of all genomically sequenced tests. of a causal variant. See the chart below. Map showing the percentage of cases that are BA.2 (in pink) compared to the original Omicron (in purple) CDC Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer has expressed concern this week about recent increases in school outbreaks. The county reported a total of 14 last week, including one example that Ferrer called “one of the biggest cases we’ve had since the beginning of the pandemic, I think, at a K-12 school.” And beyond the scale of this epidemic, Ferrer said, “We have more than tripled the number of young people. [school] epidemics this week. “ The increase is related to the spread of BA.2. LADPH But Ferrer noted that test scores still remain very low on school campuses – below that across the county. “So when you see an increase in outbreaks, what it means is that there is more transmission in schools than in the past,” he said, noting that with a more contagious variant and fewer levels of protection, there will be more transmission. “I know people hate these masks, but these masks really helped,” Ferrer said. “As we see more cases in schools, we must look at it and not dismiss it, say ‘No, I will not put these masks back on.’ We will put layers of protection when we need it. “
