Echoing pleas from the early days of the pandemic, Los Angeles County health officials urged residents Friday to get tested for COVID-19 if they develop any symptoms or believe they were exposed to the virus, and cooperate with contract-tracers if they call.
The county on Friday also confirmed another 31 fatalities due to COVID, including one person between the ages of 12 and 17. The death — a patient with underlying health conditions — brought to seven the number of children under age 18 who have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic. Two of them were under age 12 and five were between 12 and 17.
The 31 new fatalities increased the pandemic’s death toll in the county to 25,032. Another 3,361 cases of COVID-19 were also confirmed by county health officials on Friday, raising the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 1,376,551. The rolling daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 3.6% as of Friday.
The number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals dipped slightly for the second day in a row, falling to 1,775 from the Thursday total of 1,786, according to state figures. There were 427 people in intensive care, up from 414 on Thursday. The latest county figures show that 73% of county residents age 12 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine. Among the overall 10.3 million residents in the county — including those too young to be eligible for the shots — 63% have received at least one dose and 55% are fully vaccinated.
“Everyone who is not yet vaccinated needs to know they do not have the same protection as vaccinated people,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. “While the highest hospitalization rate is among older unvaccinated adults over 50, hospitalizations in younger unvaccinated adults between the ages of 18 and 49 have increased 226% since July 7. Relative to unvaccinated adults, hospitalization rates among vaccinated adults of all ages remain very low. The data continues to show how well protected vaccinated people are from bad outcomes. Our top priority is vaccinating those not yet vaccinated.”
Ferrer said she expects daily new case numbers to remain high in the coming weeks due to increased testing being required at many schools and businesses.
The county Department of Public Health on Friday reminded residents about the need to get tested if they develop symptoms or were exposed to the virus — even if they are fully vaccinated. Those people should also isolate from others while awaiting test results, according to the county. The county also urged people to cooperate with contact-tracers, who reach out to those who test positive or have been exposed. The contact-tracing process is considered crucial to identifying people who may have been exposed to the virus without their knowledge, and to containing potential outbreaks. Contact tracers can also provide information about isolation and quarantine and how to access services and providers.
Calls from contact tracers will display on phones as “LA Public Health” or 833-641-0305. People who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have not received a call from contact tracers were urged to call 833-540-0473.
While continuing to profess the effectiveness of vaccines, Ferrer noted that the percentages of fully vaccinated people being infected and hospitalized have been rising over the past three months. She said that in April, vaccinated people represented only 5% of the overall number of cases in the county. In July, that number increased to 30%. Vaccinated people represented only 5% of hospitalized patients in April, but 13% in July.
Overall, however, the percentages of vaccinated people who test positive, are hospitalized, or die from COVID remain low — all less than 1%. Of the nearly 5.15 million fully vaccinated residents as of Tuesday, 27,331 have tested positive, for a rate of 0.53%. Only 742 were hospitalized, for a rate of 0.014%, and 68 have died, a rate of 0.0013%.
“With these high rates of community transmission, more fully vaccinated people are getting post-vaccination infection. However, this very same information also makes it clear how much protection fully vaccinated people have,” Ferrer said. “Most of us that are fully vaccinated, we don’t get infected. And if we do get infected, we don’t end up hospitalized and they are very unlikely to tragically lose their life to COVID if fully vaccinated.”
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Crossroads says
Maybe you should read an article to help you develop your brain outside of COVID-19 waaaaa waaaaaaa
Tim Scott says
Funny that I can discuss a whole range of subjects that I am well read on while you take two posts to say nothing deeper than “Waaaaahhhhh, Tim’s right again and I can’t say anything intelligent in response.”
Good luck crossing the street.
Crossroads says
Move to China
Tim Scott says
Just read a really good article that illustrates the great job California has done against the Covid crisis. It’s about a Texas town where they currently have a 42% positivity rate on covid testing.
Their governor’s “hell no, the school district can’t require masks” command was followed and the schools opened. They are closed now. Too many staff are out sick for them to operate. Doesn’t really matter with so many kids either out sick or kept home for their own safety.
The local big source of employment is oilfield work. An oilfield isn’t like a restaurant, where a short staff means long wait times for customers. Oilfields mean equipment that has to be operated 24/7, and maintained. Without operators and maintenance workers the town’s major employers are being forced to shut down production.
A kid that went to school, masked for the protection of his class mates, came home with covid caught from an unmasked classmate that infected basically everyone. His father spent several days in the local hospital, which is too small to have any ICU. Their normal procedure is ‘stabilize and transfer’, but there was nowhere to transfer him to. Every time an ICU bed opened anywhere in west Texas the hospital entered their guy in a “worst case sweepstakes” trying to get him into that bed. Eventually he was sick enough to get a bed. He died two days later in a bigger hospital a hundred miles from home.
Having been told that the hospital a hundred miles away obviously gave priority for ICU care to their own patients people from the town with severe covid symptoms are driving the hundred miles to go to their emergency room in hopes of being admitted there. Their own local hospital just shipped out their second case that was bad enough to “win” an ICU bed. They got shipped out of state, to New Mexico.
This is the outcome of GOP Covid response planning. The kind of planning republicans are mad at Gavin Newsom for having not done. This is the kind of outcome Republicans are touting as “what we should be doing.”
The democrats are planning to use “vote like democracy depends on it, because it does” as a slogan next year, focusing on GOP efforts to turn America into an “only party members get to vote” shell of our constitutional government. That’s important, but that’s next year. TODAY we in California face this GOP driven multi million dollar wasting recall election. Don’t vote like democracy depends on it…RUN TO VOTE…VOTE FOR YOUR LIVES.
Trumpist#1 says
Just watched Trump rally where he said he respects peoples’ freedom, but he encourages everyone to be vaccinated with “his” vaccines.
So he isn’t discouraging people from getting vaccinated. Now I love him again.
Tim Scott says
He’s several months late, but if he actually said that good on him.
Of course he was speaking in Alabama where they ran out of ICU beds several days ago at what is almost certainly going to be recognized in a few says as a massive covid superspreader event, so the balance is…dubious.
I suggest you should look at the realities around his January 6th attempt to cause a constitutional crisis and overthrow the government, then decide if he really merits your ‘love.’
Tim Scott says
LOL…so I just watched the clip. The crowd booed when he said it. That means with 99% certainty he will NEVER say it again.
Trumpist#1 says
It was Alabama, lol. Never been. Never will. Humidity, bugs and Alabamans.
Tim Scott says
I spent a week in a bar in Mobile once. I also stopped at the “welcome to Alabama” sign when I was moving out of Florida so I could issue what I expected to be my final statement back into Florida. Other than that I have just flown over Alabama.