Los Angeles County public health officials on Saturday reported 521 new cases of the coronavirus and 56 related deaths. They said that young people continue to drive transmission of the virus in the community, while the elderly are responsible for the majority of deaths.
Of the cases reported on Saturday, 70% were under the age of 50 and, of the deaths, 93% were over the age of 50, the county’s public health department said in a press release.
“Many young people are socializing with other family members, raising concerns that asymptomatic young people are unknowingly helping to spread the virus to more vulnerable people,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of health for LA County, in a statement. . “Although we are making good progress in our vaccination efforts, we are entering a potentially dangerous period if people let their guard down.”
Initially slow vaccine implementation in California has increased in recent days, although the state still lags behind many others in the percentage of inoculated residents, and local officials continue to report that demand far outstrips supply.
Meanwhile, more communicable and potentially deadly variants of the coronavirus continue to circulate. Experts are looking at the metrics to see if the variants are causing another wave of infections, as has been reported in Italy.
But case rates and hospitalizations in Southern California continued to fall. There were 792 patients with COVID-19 in LA County hospitals on Friday, a decline of approximately 33% from two weeks earlier, when there were 1,176.
Orange County reported a similar trend. The county on Saturday registered 118 new cases and 26 deaths. There were 197 patients with COVID-19 in their hospitals on Friday, down almost 39% from the previous two weeks.
Los Angeles and Orange counties have recently switched to the less restrictive red layer of the state’s reopening plan, meaning that restaurants, gyms, cinemas and museums have been able to reopen for capacity-limited internal operations, some schools have been cleared to receive from the students come back in person, and people were allowed to resume the meeting at home with members of up to three other families, provided they wear masks and are socially distant.
Public health officials emphasize that while certain activities are permitted, this does not mean that they are not at risk, and it is still important to follow health guidelines, including masking, detachment and frequent hand washing.