COVID-19 hospitalizations in Los Angeles County are at their lowest since Thanksgiving, officials said on Thursday.
The number of COVID-19 patients admitted to the county on Wednesday was 1,886, according to state data released on Thursday. In the past week, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have dropped by an average of about 5% per day, and on Tuesday, LA County recorded 1,988 hospitalizations for COVID-19 – the first time the number has dropped to less than 2,000 since November 26th.
At the worst point in the pandemic, 8,098 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in LA County, a figure recorded on January 5.
But while the numbers in November were increasing rapidly – hospitalizations for COVID-19 increased by up to 47% in a week that month – they are now moving in the opposite direction. Since last week, hospitalizations for COVID-19 across the county have dropped 29%, while new coronavirus cases identified daily have dropped 16%, according to a Times analysis.
The LA County Department of Public Health said the daily positivity rate was just over 3%, up from more than 20% on January 1.
Despite the good news, it is taking time for hospitals to recover from the sudden increase. Public hospitals in the county still report a large number of COVID-19 patients with very long stays in intensive care units.
The county also reported on Thursday 10 additional cases of multisystemic inflammatory syndrome, a serious inflammatory disease associated with COVID-19 that affects children under 21.
The additions raise the total number of MIS-C cases in LA County to 100 – a substantial increase from just over a month ago, when there were 62 children with MIS-C in the county.
“This increase in cases is a harrowing delayed result of the increase we experienced in December and January,” said the Department of Public Health in a statement, adding that most children with MIS-C were infected with COVID-19 at some point before diagnosis.
Symptoms of MIS-C include fever that does not go away and inflamed body parts, including heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs.
Of the 100 cases of MIS-C in the municipality, 30% were children under 5 years old, 40% were between 5 and 11 years old and 30% were between 12 and 20 years old.
All 100 young people diagnosed with MIS-C in LA County were hospitalized and 40% were treated in the ICU. A child died.
“To the many families who are mourning a loved one who passed away from COVID-19, we send our deepest condolences,” said LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer in a statement. “We continue to experience the repercussions of the sudden increase in January on our growing number of children with MIS-C.”
In LA County, the inflammatory syndrome disproportionately affected Latino children, who account for 71% of reported cases.
And while overall case and hospital numbers are declining, the county reported an additional 109 deaths from COVID-19 and 1,983 cases on Thursday. The cumulative death toll rose sharply on Wednesday, when the county reported an accumulation of more than 800 deaths during the fall and winter increase, which raised the statewide death toll to more than 50,000.
LA County recorded a cumulative total of 21,106 COVID-19 deaths and 1.19 million confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, vaccination efforts continue to grapple with problems such as climate, limited doses and frustrated efforts to target shots at affected communities. Los Angeles and San Diego County officials said they still do not receive weeks of notice of incoming dose shipments, a problem that Governor Gavin Newsom said will be resolved soon.
Concerns are also growing about mutant variants of the coronavirus, including a California strain that new research suggests spreads more readily than its predecessors.
But the fact that daily coronavirus cases continue to decline is gratifying, said Dr. Eric McDonald, medical director of the San Diego County epidemiology department, this week.
“So, even if it’s a little more contagious than others circulating in the community, the message to take home is the same: you need to do all the things we recommend to prevent transmission – so, wearing masks, social detachment , stay home, ”he told reporters on Wednesday.
The coronavirus cannot mutate if it does not infect people, say the scientists. And masks and social distance are equally effective in preventing the spread of mutant strains.
“With the continued spread of variants that … threaten the progress we are making, we must again commit to doing our part to protect each other,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Control and Prevention recently, said. of Diseases. “Wear a tight-fitting mask, social distance, avoid travel and crowds, practice good hand hygiene and be vaccinated when the vaccine is available to you.”
The Times staff writer Ryan Menezes contributed to this report.