Los Angeles County is on the downslope of the omicron winter surge, the county’s public health chief said Thursday, Jan. 27.
But with 85 more deaths related to the virus posted, she warned of complacency as the region “turns the corner” into a near future that while hopeful remains vulnerable to variants and continued high transmission.
That future includes a close watch on a “sub-lineage” of omicron known as BA.2, as researchers begin to seek answers on the newly discovered sub-variant.
County officials have identified four cases of BA.2, but they are unclear of whether that suggests another surge is on the horizon.
“We don’t yet now how BA.2 might be different than other omicron lineages, and scientists will be working rapidly in the coming weeks to learn more about immune evasion, severity and transmissibility,” Ferrer told reporters in a weekly briefing. “In places that have already passed their peak of omicron cases, it does appear that BA.2 is causing a new surge. In places at their peak of the Omicron surge that have significant BA.2 prevalence, it doesn’t appear that BA.2 is behaving dramatically different than other Omicron lineages. And compared with other Omicron lineages, BA.2 does not really have many unique mutations that would be impacting the part of the virus that’s targeted by our immune system.”
Bottom line: It’s too early to know if a new subvariant should raise red flags. But it was further evidence that in a world not yet fully immune, variants will persist.
“We’ve likely passed the peak of omicron transmission in Los Angeles County,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “Over the past two weeks we’ve seen a downward trend of cases and the positivity rate … .”
For instance, last Friday, the week ended with 43,091 new cases. By Thursday, 26,010 new cases. All told, 2,586,739 cases have been confirmed since the pandemic’s start in the county.
Test positivity and cases per day were all falling. So too were hospitalizations. The number of hospitalized in the county fell 211 to 4,323., according to the state. And the number of people in ICU’s in the county fell 34 to 746. Both after weeks of climbing each day. The local trend reflects a pattern being seen nationally.
But the high number of deaths — the so-called “lagging indicators” in the metrics — remained a concern, as transmission of the virus in the county remains high.
Thursday’s 85 deaths added to a total of 28,715 lost lives over the past two years — the second anniversary of the first case in the county being found on Jan. 26, 2020.
“These deaths remind us that the omicron variant can and does lead to severe illness and for some it remains a critical matter of life and death,” Ferrer said.
While the dropping case numbers overall were encouraging, Ferrer warned that county residents remain at very high risk of transmission, and that 20,000-plus cases per day was still extremely high.
“While the case and hospitalization declines give us cause for much-welcomed hope, we should not take them as a sign to forgo the common-sense protective measures that help to slow COVID-19 transmission in our county,” she said. “Continuing these safety measures is needed to drive down cases to a much smaller number, which will ultimately end staffing shortages, reduce workplace and school outbreaks, and most importantly keep residents from becoming seriously ill and dying.”
She pointed to what she said was continued outbreaks at local sites.
“Much of the exponential growth in recent weeks has been driven by outbreaks at worksites and skilled nursing facilities,” Ferrer said.
At worksites, three or more cases over a 14-day period, with an epidemiological link, constitutes an outbreak. At skilled-nursing facilities, one case constitutes an outbreak. Ferrer said the outbreaks have continued to impact all sectors.
Officials on Thursday continued to urge vaccination as the best way to contain the virus and to adhere to masking protocols.
According to the county, 81% of eligible county residents aged 5 and above have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 72% are fully vaccinated. Only 32% are fully vaccinated with a booster shot. Of the county’s overall 10.3 million population, 77% have received one dose, 69% are fully vaccinated, and 31% are vaccinated and boosted.
The vaccination rate among children aged 5-11 remains low, with only 31% having received at least one dose, and only 21% fully vaccinated. Ferrer said the low vaccination rate among children “creates significant vulnerability for spread” of the virus.
On Thursday, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, D-California, joined with several hospital leaders from around the state in urging vaccinations — particularly for young children.
“Over two-thirds of our children 5 to 11 years of age remain unvaccinated, even though COVID is the eighth-leading cause of death in this 5-11 age group, and these deaths and many of the hospitalizations we’re seeing now are preventable,” said Dr. Grace Lee, Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford.
Lee lamented children and adults who are asymptomatic and have mild COVID infections but who go on to developing more serious conditions — including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a condition in which different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs.
Experts continued to raise alarm about disparities in healthcare, which because of the higher rate of spread of omicron, have led to more cases among children.
“Low-income communities and communities of color have been disproportionately, severely and adversely impacted, both children and adults — from higher infection rates to greater morbidity and mortality,” said Paul Viviano, president and CEO of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “These communities have been harder hit, laying bear the structural inequalities and quality of access to care.”
The latest data suggesting a waning surge comes as L.A. County prepares to host two big professional football games — The NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl, both at Inglewood’s lavish SoFi Stadium — and with celebrations coming next week for the Lunar New Year.
Ferrer voiced confidence that the events themselves would not promote the spread of the virus. She said a season’s worth of games at SoFi Stadium, drawing 1.2 million people have shown that such giant events can happen safely, when people adhere to masking rules and testing protocols.
“Thanks to high cooperation among the fans, spectators, SoFi Statium, and the teams, we’ve had really decent compliance,” she said, thanks to people adhering to vaccination, testing and masking rules. “I have confidence that for months now we have been open and layered in protections that people will continue to be cautious, to take advantage of all the strategies that are available to keep themselves and the people they love safe and that the partnership with both the NFL and SoFi Stadium gives us a good opportunity to hold and event with as much safety as possible.”
Ferrer noted that the county has not seen an uptick related to such big games in the past.
Still, Ferrer said any big event will require caution and weighing of risk.
“Were starting to see the decline. If we want to continue see the decline we’ve got to follow some common-sense practices,” Ferrer said. “If we’re going to be gathering, hosting or attending football viewing parties, we have to do it sensibly.”
Ferrer urged people with underlying health conditions to strongly assess their risk.
If gathering for parties for NFL viewing parties and Lunar New Year celebrations, she urged people to get tested and mask up where appropriate and required.
“It’s not that people can’t gather, it’s that if you are going to gather you need to layer in some of those safety precautions and for people at highest risk of sever illness you need to be super careful and cautious,” she said
City News Service contributed to this report.
