After a relatively calm summer, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) is reporting a rise in measures of COVID-19 transmission for the fifth consecutive week. To help mitigate the spread, Public Health is working with institutions and partners to provide information about and access to vaccinations, tests, and therapeutics. Public Health continues to provide support and resources to skilled nursing facilities, where people are at higher risk for severe illness, and schools, where students and staff are indoors, in close contact with each other, for long periods of time.
The increase in COVID-19 circulation is likely the combined result of multiple factors, including summer travel, return to school, and the emergence of new COVID-19 variant strains. Compared to other points during the pandemic, hospitalizations and deaths remain relatively low. However, people more vulnerable to severe illness and death, including people who are immunocompromised, older or in skilled nursing facilities, and the people they spend time with, should consider precautions to protect against COVID infection. These protections include wearing a well-fitting high filtration mask when in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor spaces and on public transit, testing when symptomatic and/or after a known COVID-19 exposure, remaining home when sick, and seeking therapeutics if infected.
In Los Angeles County this week, an average of 512 daily cases was reported, a nearly 35 percent increase from the week before. Reported cases do not include home tests, so the actual number of COVID infections in the community is much higher.
