LA County moves into CDC’s ‘high transmission’ COVID category – Whittier Daily News


Los Angeles County has moved into the CDC’s “high” transmission level for the community spread of COVID, but a new mask mandate is not being announced at this time, reported Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a Dec. 8 media briefing.

Cases have been trending upwards for several weeks and Thursday’s case rate of 258 new cases per 100,000 people officially crossed into the high transmission category. The County’s reported hospital admission rate of 14.8 per 100,000 people on Thursday also qualifies for the high transmission category.

This hospital admission rate meets one of two criteria that could lead the Public Health Department to announce an indoor mask mandate. The second criteria is the share of inpatient hospital beds occupied by COVID patients, which at 6.9% is currently below the 10% benchmark for a mask mandate to be considered.

Related: LA City Council votes to end COVID-19 emergency rules that protect renters

“As I’ve noted before, that universal indoor masking would only go into effect after we’ve had two consecutive weeks of remaining at that high level for both thresholds with the hospital metrics,” said Ferrer. “We’re actually not sure that we’ll get there.”

Ferrer did urge residents to voluntarily wear a mask indoors as a layer of protection. Masks continue to be required in indoor healthcare, correctional and congregate care settings.

During the past week an average of nearly 3,800 COVID cases were reported per day, reflecting a 40% increase from the prior week and an over 200% increase from a month ago.

Deaths are also rising. The County reported an average of 8 deaths a day last week, which increased to an average of 12 deaths a day this week.

Long Beach, which operates its own health department, moved into the CDC’s medium community transmission tier on Wednesday, Dec. 7, according to data from the city’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Long Beach will not be imposing a mask mandate at this time but its health department urged residents to mask up in crowded indoor settings.

Related: You’ve got COVID, but what are the rules these days?

The city’s community transmission tier was elevated to medium after its weekly average COVID-19 case rate topped 200 per 100,000. That metric totaled 244.9 per 100,000 people, according to data posted to the city’s dashboard on Dec. 7.

Long Beach reported 882 new coronavirus cases in a five-day period, according to the most recent data through Tuesday, Dec. 6.

There were 25 COVID-positive Long Beach residents hospitalized as of Monday, down from 26 reported the previous Friday — but up from just eight reported two weeks prior. Long Beach’s COVID-19 deaths, though, have remained relatively stable, with the city reporting no new COVID-19-related deaths between Dec. 2 and Dec. 6.

The two hospital metrics tied to an indoor mask mandate have not been updated in Long Beach since Dec. 1, at which time they were both below the threshold to trigger consideration of a mandate.

Pasadena, which also maintains its own health department, was already in the CDC’s high transmission level prior to L.A. County crossing that threshold, officials said.

The 38 new cases reported Thursday by Pasadena Public Health Department, is a downtick from recent counts, but local public health and medical experts still urged people to take resulting precautions as the holiday season arrives amid increasing instances of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and emerging COVID-19 variants.

“Thankfully we are not seeing an increase in hospitalization or deaths and continued to review data daily,” Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian said, noting that Pasadena health officials have been in “constant contact” with Los Angeles County and other health partners throughout the state and locally since the onset of the pandemic.

“We are in high transmission and our numbers are increasing,” she added, “but at this point we’re hoping people continue to make good choices such as getting vaccinated, wearing masks, staying home if sick, washing hands frequently.

None of the local health departments — L.A. County, Long Beach and Pasadena — indicated a desire to impose more restrictions at this time.

“Being at high community level doesn’t mean returning to more restrictive and disruptive measures that we used at earlier times in the pandemic,” said Ferrer. “We are not asking people to curtail their activities to avoid activities or to shut down any activities.”

However, the county health department is letting people know that elevated transmission levels come with a higher risk of illness and that this is impacting the healthcare system and vulnerable residents, she added.

“It would be dangerous for us to feel that we no longer need to try to minimize the impact of these surges by taking some practical steps that can reduce transmission and illness severity and by taking actions that care for ourselves and others,” Ferrer said.

The toll of COVID continues to disproportionately impact the county’s aging population.

Although people aged 80 and older make up just 3.5% of the county’s residents, they represent approximately 30% of hospitalizations and 50% of deaths in the last 90 days.

Such protective measures as masking up indoors, washing hands frequently and avoiding crowded indoor settings offer protection against not only COVID, but also against the flu and RSV.

The testing positivity rate for the flu is 30% this week, compared with 25% this week. There is evidence that the RSV surge peaked in early November, as the testing positivity rate for RSV is declining, Ferrer said. However, RSV positivity rates remain higher than those seen at the peak of previous RSV seasons.

“In LA County, we have millions of residents at elevated risk for severe illness this winter, especially given the reality of having three circulating respiratory viruses all with very high activity,” Ferrer said.



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