Los Angeles County has reported 3,360 new cases of COVID-19, along with 27 additional deaths associated with the virus and eight more confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
The number of new cases is the highest in months, and comes one day after officials announced stepped-up efforts to combat the pandemic, including new rules for attending large events.
The new Omicron cases brings the county’s confirmed total to 38. Of the eight cases reported Friday, five people were fully vaccinated and one received a booster. One person reported international travel and one person reported domestic travel, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday there is no evidence to suggest the new variant causes more severe symptoms than previous versions, but it is more transmissible than other variants.
“Based on the data collected to date, we anticipate that Omicron will circulate more widely in L.A. County in the very near future, leading to many more cases over a short period of time, particularly given increased gatherings with travel over the winter holiday,” Ferrer said.
“Unvaccinated individuals appear to remain at the highest risk, but all the evidence to date indicates that those fully vaccinated are also at increased risk, particularly for getting infected and infecting others.”
In a small piece of good news, the number of county residents hospitalized with COVID-19 fell to 749 on Friday, down from 772 on Thursday, according to the latest state figures. Of those patients, 182 were in intensive care, unchanged from the previous day.
As of Friday, anyone attending indoor or outdoor mega-events in the county who cannot provide proof of full vaccination was required to provide proof of a negative COVID test within one day (if antigen test) or two days (if PCR test) of the event.
Children under age 2 are exempt from the rule for indoor events, and children under 5 are exempt for outdoor events. This is a change from the previous health order, which required proof of a negative test within 72 hours.
The county defines mega-events as indoor gatherings of more than 1,000 people or outdoor events of more than 10,000 people.
Meanwhile, officials noted Thursday’s action by an advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which unanimously voted to give a preferential recommendation to mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna over the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to rare but serious blood clots associated with the latter.
Dr. Isaac See of the CDC said health officials have confirmed 54 cases of the blood clots — nine of which have been fatal — and two additional deaths suspected to be related to the blood clotting issue.
L.A. County officials say that as of Dec. 12, over 530,000 residents have received a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“We remind residents that L.A. County’s supply of mRNA vaccines is abundant and that when it is time to get a booster dose, individuals previously vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should consider boosters with Pfizer or Moderna,” the health department said Friday.
“We appreciate the CDC’s guidance on vaccine choice,” Ferrer said. “While any vaccine is better than no vaccine, we urge those who have received Johnson and Johnson vaccines to obtain booster doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to ensure they are well protected from both suffering severe COVID outcomes.”
The county’s health department also said Friday that compliance with mask-wearing mandates in the public and business sector was high, and credited the practice with keeping transmission low in public schools. With more than 1.55 million students across 3,000 L.A. County schools, officials said they are routinely seeing fewer than a dozen outbreaks each week.
And out of more than 1,500 site visits conducted from Dec. 4-10, the vast majority of businesses and industries, including restaurants, bars, food markets and hair salons, had masking compliance rates above 95%.
Los Angeles County has logged 1,556,685 cases of COVID-19 and 27,413 fatalities since the pandemic began.
644 days since 15 days to slow the spread.
Recall back then we were dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant ❓ YES if the recommendations were followed of then CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, MD along with other CDC Physician Epidemic experts as published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Universal Masking to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Transmission—The Time Is Now, the result would have been COVID-19 being controlled in 1-2 months ❗ Instead the president at the time was routinely putting out antivaxx misinformation and his followers violently hindered pandemic containment.
Vaccine efficacy goes down, restrictions tighten up. Ask yourself why?
NO, vaccine efficacy is NOT going down, what we are seeing is the emergence of new variants that is driven by those unvaccinated for COVID-19 who become factories for deadlier & more contagious variants prolonging the pandemic. Nonpharmaceutical containment methods including masks, social distancing and, possible necessary lockdowns are needed in addition to vaccination.
Cy is an antifa mouthpiece and has no ability to think for himself.
If ONLY I were that important to ANTIFA or any other large group of wonderful people❗😀
you aren’t smart enough to understand the insult.
Believe that if it gets you through the day❗
WORD!
Jose is likely a sockpuppet account for WehoFan!
What does antifa have to do with vaccines and Coronavirus?
All you do is just spurt out Fox News MAGA buzz words. It’s getting really sad at this point.
Their anti-science antivaxx position is one that’s impossible to really win on so they resort to ad hominem attacks.🤣
Suits “it”…still in the red crayon phase.
Why are you letting this anti semite propagandist cy husain comment on wehoville?
Classic right-wing tactic of resorting to ad hominem attacks when your arguments have no merit❗🤣
Check cy husain’s twitter. He is an anti semite.
One of the antivaxx trolls I got suspended from twitter and, boy is he mad❗🤣
No surprise…they bring that gutter mentality over here from the hell they leave.
Nope, he’s not.
Cy, don’t feed the trolls.
That could be cruel because it’s likely that I’m the only real social contact they have in their lives!🤣
Yes dearie, you two are made for each other.
Now Jose is jealous for attention!
And low & behold, it’s that same parts of LA County that surged before, locations of heavy illegal aliens presence.
The endless supply of Democrat sponsored illegal aliens to steal House Seats (regardless of the damage or deaths they cause Americans).
This isn’t true at all. During past surges, Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, West Hollywood and Melrose areas had the most cases. Sorry to ruin your fantasy!
That is a straight out LIE! Anyone with half a brain can go to the LA County Covid site for factual information instead of green BS.
https://coronavirus.lacity.org/Map
Here is a map of new infections. Melrose, North Hollywood, and Encino all experienced surges last week.
And here is evidence for earlier surges being in more affluent areas:
https://deadline.com/2021/07/los-angeles-covid-surge-driven-by-white-affluent-neighborhoods-1234802675/
I come with facts and evidence. What can you provide, Jose? Alternative MAGA facts? 😂
Dear Jesus, how desperate to use “DEADLINE” (a Hollywood rag for showbiz) as a source for facts. What part of LA COUNTY (notice you tried to insert LA CITY) don’t you understand? FYI, Beverly Hills is not in LA CITY nor is West Hollywood.) Here is a fact you can chew on. Have a glance at Sylmar, San Fernando, Van Nuys, Compton, Montebello and the countless other towns illegal aliens have CONSUMED! http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/locations.htm I see that you purposefully AVOIDED using the number 1 official site I mentioned above, didn’t fit your illegal alien agenda uh? The Democrat stream of new… Read more »
YOU are just putting out misinformation and leaving a link to a source that is NOT supporting your position❗
NO, the surge in COVID-19 cases across the U.S. is NOT due to migrants or immigrants. Scapegoating unpopular minorities for causing disease has a long precedent in the U.S. including the 1918 Pandemic being called “the Spanish Flu” when it clearly did NOT originate there.
Get some fresh material instead of 6 months ago (JULY), furthermore, for those of use who are locals, know that Beverly Hills, West Hollywood are NOT in the city of LA.
Deadline for a factual source? Really?
Bless your heart…don’t ignore the FACTS in my first post,
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/locations.htm
Just like for the parts of LA County over run by illegal aliens…i.e Sylmar, Compton, Montebello, San Fernando, and countless others.
If the illegal aliens being unvaxxed is truly your concern then that’s all the more reason to be vaccinated yourself, if we’re being consistent. No way around it, vaccination is the only right thing for everyone.
Never said it wasn’t. And it doesn’t mean there should be a continuous flow of unvaccinated illegal aliens into the country either…otherwise, drop the whole border charade, mask requirement and all.
Internet trolls from Kentucky know that beverly hells and the Great City of West Hollywood are NOT a part of LA city but LA County. Again your given link is NOT supporting the misinformation you are putting out. It’s conspiracy misinformation largely putout by right-wing whites that’s fueling the spread of COVID-19 and largely hampering containment❗
I am from here, are you, Mr. Backwardland of Religious Fanatics?
Grow up and step away from your silly little crayons. You are the biggest troll across these articles. That is public information.
Outside antivaxx troll trying to pass for local?
Don’t make me hurt your savage feelings…I go back generations here. Where do you go back? And don’t lie hussy, uh, I mean In-usain.
So, I’m glad you let white people know how you feel about them. As if degenerate racists can’t be spotted like a hyena window shopping on Santa Monica Blouvard.
Of course the Henny Penny is spouting untruths, it doesn’t fill Gruesome and Brandon’s agenda in trying to force vaccinations against one’s will
I provided data and evidence. It’s like kryptonite to you MAGA conspiracy quacks 😘
Fake, look over here with the old bs line evidence. Anyone who thinks “facts” come from “Deadline” the showbiz rag is valid, well, that says it all. But, this is typical for the Far Left fanatics. Long on propaganda and short on commonsense based facts.
Did you even read the article? It quotes data from the county. How can you say that data is “fake”???
I proved you wrong and all you can come up with is “fake” 😆
Reality ✅ It’s highly credible Epidemiology Research Scientists who warn that antivaxx conspiracy nonsense is what’s undermining efforts to end the COVID-19 Pandemic ☣ ❗ The “DEADLINE” article did cite credible pandemic & relevant data from LA County Health for example, where as YOU make unfounded accusations and leave a link to LACPH completely unrelated to the argument you are making.
Just pathetic.
Pathetic that your antivaxx claims are so easily debunked by simply checking any reliable Medical Science⚕ source.
If you spent half the time doing something other than your Soros Flunky job of spreading your Third World Antifa nut job propaganda bs, you might develop a life.
Every credible Medical Science ⚕ source on the entire planet🌎 has concluded that vaccination💉 is necessary to beat the COVID-19 Pandemic ☣ ❗