{"id":111235,"date":"2022-10-07T15:19:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T22:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=111235"},"modified":"2022-10-07T15:20:28","modified_gmt":"2022-10-07T22:20:28","slug":"push-continues-for-covid-vaccinations-1300-more-laco-infections-reported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2022\/10\/07\/push-continues-for-covid-vaccinations-1300-more-laco-infections-reported\/","title":{"rendered":"Push continues for COVID vaccinations; 1,300 more LACo infections reported"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Los Angeles County reported more than 1,300 new COVID-19 infections Friday, Oct. 7, along with 11 more deaths, amid a continued call for residents to receive booster shots designed to fend off current variants of the virus.<\/p>\n

The 1,336 new cases reported Friday gave the county a cumulative total of 3,464,157 from throughout the pandemic. The 11 fatalities lifted the county’s overall virus-related death toll to 33,740.\u00a0Daily case numbers reported by the county have been steadily falling for weeks, although health officials have conceded that the official figures could be misleading due to residents primarily using at-home tests that aren’t reported to the county.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, the average seven-day rate of people testing positive for the virus in the county was 4.6%.\u00a0According to state figures, there were 500 COVID-positive patients in county hospitals as of Friday, down from 516 on Wednesday. Of those patients, 63 were being treated in intensive care, down from 66 a day earlier.<\/p>\n

COVID hospitalization numbers have been generally declining over the past few months, reflecting overall decreases in virus transmission in the county. In mid-July, there were more than 1,300 virus-positive patients in county hospitals.\u00a0County officials have said that roughly 40% of those patients were admitted specifically for COVID, while the others were hospitalized for other reasons but tested positive upon admission.<\/p>\n

County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer<\/strong> again Friday urged residents to take advantage of new COVID-19 booster shots, noting that they are specifically engineered to combat Omicron variants of the virus, which are the most common in circulation. She also noted that protection residents got with the original series of shots is likely waning, raising their risk of infection and more severe illness.<\/p>\n

“While the original vaccines do continue to provide significant protection against severe illness and death, it is important to know that these early vaccines may provide less protection against the transmission of the virus,” Ferrer said in a statement Friday. “For the county’s vulnerable residents who are 65 and older, it is especially important to get the new, updated fall booster. Keeping older and more vulnerable residents safe also means testing before gathering indoors and staying away if we are sick. With the cooler weather and fall holidays, many more of us will be staying indoors, gathering with others, or traveling, so it is still practical to follow all health safety measures.”<\/p>\n

Health officials have long warned that as long as COVID continues spreading, the more likely it is that mutations, or variants, will develop that could spread more quickly or cause more severe illness.<\/p>\n

Ferrer said the county will be closely watching trends in variants locally, noting that while the increases thus far are small, they could potentially spread more as people spend more time indoors during the winter. With more people mingling inside, “a variant that has an advantage in transmission and evades protections more easily will flourish,” Ferrer said.<\/p>\n

“We need to be prepared for increases that are likely going to be associated with colder weather,” Ferrer said.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles County reported more than 1,300 new COVID-19 infections Friday, Oct. 7, along with 11 more deaths, amid a continued call for residents to receive booster shots designed to fend off current variants of the virus. The 1,336 new cases reported Friday gave the county a cumulative total of 3,464,157 from throughout the pandemic. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":108558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,15,1496],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111236,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111235\/revisions\/111236"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}