[ad_1]
Los Angeles County now records more than 10,000 cases of coronavirus per week – an unprecedented rate since March – an alarming sign of the dangers the Delta variant poses to people who have not been vaccinated and increases pressure on officials health to reverse the trend.
Analysis of Los Angeles Times data found that LA County recorded 101 weekly coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, up from 12 for the seven-day period that ended on June 15. That means the county has passed the threshold for “high” community transmission of the disease, the worst level as defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A region must reach 100 or more weekly cases per 100,000 population to enter the worst level.
This is still far less than during the deadly winter wave, when LA County recorded more than 1,000 weekly cases per 100,000 population, but it highlights growing concerns that unvaccinated people are at increased risk.
The increase here and elsewhere is why 11 counties – which are home to more than half of Californians – are urging all residents, regardless of their immunization status, to wear masks in indoor public places. So far, LA County is the only county to make this a requirement, while much of the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Sacramento, Fresno, and Yolo counties, have made this a requirement. pleading a recommendation.
The main rationale for a mandatory mask policy in indoor public places is to encourage unvaccinated people to resume wearing their masks, thereby reducing the risk of disease transmission until new infections subside. .
Authorities believe that many unvaccinated people have stopped wearing masks at the same time as those vaccinated, although unvaccinated people are still ordered to continue wearing face coverings. Of the new coronavirus cases in LA County in a recent six-month period, 99.6% were in people who had not been vaccinated.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in LA County have also doubled in the past three weeks, from 255 on June 28 to 528 on Saturday – a number not seen since April. That means the county is now reporting more than 5 people hospitalized for COVID-19 per 100,000 population, a threshold that some experts say could be a reasonable trigger to institute stricter mask measures.
Other heavily populated counties that have hospitalization rates above this threshold include San Bernardino, Alameda, Sacramento, Contra Costa, Fresno, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sonoma and Solano, according to the Times analysis.
LA County partly modeled its order for indoor masks on Israel’s approach. On June 25, Israeli authorities reimposed mandatory mask requirements in indoor public spaces just 10 days after dropping most mask orders after observing rising infection rates. Government officials have been reluctant to impose a new foreclosure order.
Promisingly, hospitalizations have remained relatively low in Israel, Dr.Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said at a press conference recently.
Fully vaccinated people are extraordinarily protected against serious illness, hospitalizations and death from COVID-19, and experts across the country say the worst effects of this wave are affecting nearly everyone unvaccinated. Unvaccinated people in LA County included 98.7% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 99.8% of deaths between December 7 and June 7, and not a single fully vaccinated person has been hospitalized for COVID-19 in the huge public hospital system from LA County.
“Hospitals will never be the same again,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease expert at UC San Francisco.
About 53% of LA County residents are fully vaccinated and 60% are at least partially vaccinated, but that still means millions of people remain vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19. Experts have guessed that 70% to 85% of a population will need to be immunized to block continued transmission of the coronavirus.
Former surgeon general Dr Jerome Adams urged the CDC to lead by example in LA County’s mask policy and advise masking in communities with increasing cases and increasing rates of positive tests. “Emerging data suggests the CDC should advise vaxing it AND masking it in areas with [rising] case and positivity – until we see the numbers go back down, ”Adams tweeted.
Federal officials said the new LA County ordinance was reasonable. “And I predict that will happen in other parts of the country as well,” current surgeon general Dr Vivek Murthy told ABC’s “This Week”.
Although vaccinated people are extraordinarily protected against severe COVID-19, they cannot completely ignore an increasing rate of community transmission.
An increased circulation of the virus means that those vaccinated will be more likely to meet an unvaccinated and contagious person in the community, which means that there is a higher risk of a “breakthrough” infection. Peak infections are already quite rare, but even if they do occur, vaccinated people who are infected are unlikely to need hospitalization.
Nonetheless, even a COVID-19 illness that does not require hospitalization can still disrupt daily life, requiring notification of close contacts, cancellation of work and social activities, and can be a “disappointment”, Chin-Hong said.
“By increasing the virus in the community, you increase the chances that vaccinated people will get infected and therefore pass it on to unvaccinated people,” Chin-Hong said.
However, it’s reasonable to assume that an infected vaccinated person will be less likely than an unvaccinated person to pass the virus on to someone else, Fauci said. This is because vaccinated people who are infected have significantly lower levels of the virus in their throats than unvaccinated people.
In addition, the best way to ensure that children remain protected against COVID-19 is to have as many adults and adolescents vaccinated around them as possible. LA County has 1.3 million children under the age of 12 who are too young to be vaccinated. And while young children are much less likely than adults to suffer from serious complications from COVID-19 – because they have far fewer proteins called ACE2 receptors in the nose that the coronavirus needs to infect the body – there are nonetheless rare situations in which they can suffer serious illness and death.
Weekly rates of coronavirus cases were the highest and rose fastest among the youngest adults, those aged 18 to 29, according to county data; the virus also spreads faster in adults in their 30s and 40s as well as adolescents compared to younger and older age groups.
LA County officials estimate that 92% of residents aged 65 to 79 have received at least one shot of the vaccine. But only 41% of adolescents and adolescents aged 12 to 15 are at least partially vaccinated, as are only 58% of youngest adults, up to 29 years.
The increase in weekly rates of coronavirus cases, COVID-19 hospitalizations, or both, has been noticeable in the four areas of California that have urged people to mask themselves again. The weekly rate of coronavirus cases has nearly tripled in Sacramento County and nearly quadrupled in all nine San Francisco Bay counties over the past month.
Since July 4, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 has doubled in Sacramento County and increased by 51% in Fresno County. Hospitalizations in the Bay Area have doubled since the end of June.
The increase in cases comes as the pace of weekly vaccinations in LA County has fallen to disappointing rates, with around 80,000 first doses of vaccine administered per week in June, below the county’s target of 100,000 first doses of vaccines per week. In May, Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer expressed optimism that LA County could achieve collective immunity – which she said was 80% of residents aged 16 and over with at least one injection – by the end of July. But at the current rate, this threshold could be reached, at the earliest, only in December.
Young black and Latino residents are among the least likely to have received the vaccine than other demographic groups. Among 18-29 year olds, only 29% of black residents and 43% of Latino residents received at least one injection, while 59% of whites, 60% of Native Americans, and 77% of Asian Americans in this group of age have received at least one dose.
Experts say sending trusted people into communities to advocate for immunization at events and go door-to-door can help improve immunization rates and access, providing people with opportunity to ask questions and enable trained staff to challenge vaccine myths and misinformation. Getting vaccines to primary care physician offices, where physicians can answer patients’ questions directly, can also help.
Another strategy would involve new requirements for getting vaccinated, such as in the workplace.
Already, San Francisco has ordered all workers in “high-risk settings,” such as hospitals, nursing homes and senior residential facilities and prisons, to be fully immunized by the 15th. September. San Francisco has also ordered all 35,000 of its city workers – including police, firefighters, guards and employees – to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs once a vaccine has been officially approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The vaccines are currently being distributed under an emergency use authorization. Exemptions from the vaccine requirement will be available for workers with valid religious and medical reasons.
Neither the city of LA nor county officials have issued a similar order.
The University of California has announced that COVID-19 vaccines will be required for all students, staff and others before the fall semester, becoming the largest public university system in the country to mandate vaccines even though they are distributed under emergency use authorization.
One idea outside of a mandatory vaccination order by employers is to make it less practical to remain unvaccinated, such as an order to have unvaccinated workers tested daily or at some other regular interval.
Times editors Luke Money, Teresa Watanabe and Colleen Shalby contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link