Los Angeles County officials continue to report a decline in new coronavirus cases, but say the emergence of a more transmissible and potentially more virulent variant underscores the importance of following security measures like masking and detachment.
Public health officials reported 2,393 new cases of the virus and 136 related deaths on Saturday, as well as two more cases of variant B.1.1.7 first identified in the UK, which has since spread to at least 42 U.S. states. . Experts predict that it will become the dominant coronavirus across the country by the end of March. This is cause for concern because it is believed to be 50% more transmissible than the conventional variety and can also be more deadly.
Los Angeles County has reported a total of 14 cases of strain B.1.1.7, but experts said there is probably more, as only a small portion of the samples undergo the genetic sequencing necessary to determine the variant. The variant has also been reported in the counties of Alameda, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo and Yolo.
While research has indicated that vaccines on the market remain effective against variant B.1.1.7, some officials expressed fear that their contagiousness could fuel another increase, especially if a comprehensive vaccination campaign takes time to launch and people get tired. and disregard the public’s safety rules.
“We must remain diligent with our security measures, although we see a general reduction in cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for LA County, in a statement. “We are going to keep our guard high because we know that letting our guard down will lead to more cases and, tragically, more deaths again.”
As of Friday, there were 2,369 COVID-19 patients in LA County hospitals, a decline of nearly 44% from two weeks earlier, when there were 4,186 patients.
Orange County reported a similar downward trend, registering on Saturday 391 new cases of the virus, 44 deaths and 591 hospitalized patients, a decline of about 46% from two weeks earlier.
This occurred at a time when the bitter winter in other parts of the country interrupted the delivery of tens of thousands of doses of the Modern vaccine to California, forcing large distribution centers administered by the city of Los Angeles, as well as some in Orange and San Diego, to halt operations and postpone appointments that were originally scheduled for this weekend.
Officials said on Thursday afternoon that weather delays have not yet stopped operations at LA County-administered vaccine sites, and city-run mobile distribution sites that travel to hard-hit areas have also remained operational.
About 250 frontline workers in supermarkets, drugstores and refrigerators were due to be vaccinated on Saturday afternoon at a pop-up clinic in the parking lot of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770 offices in Koreatown. The clinic, run in partnership with the state, was a satellite of the new mass vaccination site in Cal State Los Angeles, the union said in a press release.
About 500 other vaccines have been scheduled to be administered at a Boyle Heights clinic for residents of Eastside and South Los Angeles aged 65 and over, maintained by USC’s Keck Medicine on Saturday. The effort was aimed at increasing access to the vaccine for members of the nearby community, who are mostly Latino and black, and included door-to-door advertising and transportation from nearby Ramona Gardens public apartments, the USC said.
Public health officials say such disclosure is important to reduce the disparity that has seen Latin and black residents receiving vaccines at significantly lower rates than whites and Asians, despite seeing higher mortality rates from the virus.