The number of hospitalizations, however, continued to decline, and the current rate of people who tested positive for the virus in the county fell to 2.5 percent, well above the statewide rate of 2.1 percent, according to figures released Thursday.
According to state figures, there were 1,341 people hospitalized in the county since Thursday, with 429 people in intensive care.
But the county reported 2,253 new infections, the highest number in a single day since Feb. 20, when 2,393 cases were announced. Health officials said they would closely monitor new case numbers and other indicators, hoping it would not become a trend.
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The new cases, combined with 67 reported by health officials in Long Beach and 13 in Pasadena, have raised the county’s cumulative total since the pandemic began to 1,198,178.
The county also announced another 119 COVID-19 deaths, each with Long Beach and Pasadena adding an additional death. The new deaths raised the total number of deaths in the county to 21,780.
The county director of public health, Barbara Ferrer, mentioned on Wednesday that the daily number of deaths from the virus remained at three digits, even if other COVID values have evolved downwards. She said that with the number of hospitals constantly declining, she hoped that the number of deaths would begin to decline.
Health officials have issued another warning against leisure travel in light of the upcoming spring break, stressing that anyone traveling outside the area is required to be quarantined for 10 days when returning to Los Angeles County.
“We may be just a few weeks away from reducing transmission in LA County so that further reopening is allowed,” Ferrer said in a statement Thursday. “However, with an increasing number of cases in other states and more variants of current concern, spring travel can lead to another wave that, frankly, would be almost impossible to tolerate. The trip increases the risk of getting and “To avoid this, please postpone travel and continue to do your part to slow the spread so that our recovery trip is not ruled out.”
Ferrer said Wednesday that the county had confirmed the first case of a COVID variant first discovered in Brazil, and the number of cases of a variant originating in the United Kingdom had risen to 27, a 50% jump from the 18 cases known as since last week. And a variant from California is becoming more and more dominant, with county officials detecting the mutation in 31 of the 55 specimens that were tested specifically for it.
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Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that the first cases of a variant in New York were detected in Southern California, although he did not specify where. It is believed that all variants can be transmitted more easily from person to person, and federal authorities have expressed concern that the New York version could be more resistant to current vaccines.
The emergence of variants, although not unexpected, keeps health officials at the limit, even if COVID conditions continue to improve.
Los Angeles County is well on its way out of the restrictive purple roadmap of the state’s four-tier economic reopening roadmap by the end of March. If it moves to a less restrictive red level, more companies could be opened, including indoor tables, cinemas and fitness centers, all at limited capacity.
Figures released by the state on Tuesday set the county’s average daily rate of new COVID-19 infections at 7.2 per 100,000. If this number drops to 7 per 100,000 inhabitants and remains at that level for two weeks, the county will be able to get out of the restrictive purple level of the “Plan for a Safer Economy” of the state and in the red level.
Meanwhile, the state on Thursday announced a major policy change, redirecting 40% of all vaccines to people in lower-income communities hard hit by the pandemic. Along with this change, when the state reaches certain benchmarks in the number of vaccinations in those communities, it will adjust the case rates needed to allow counties to move more easily in the reopening plan.
The transition to the red level of the plan would also allow for the resumption of in-person training for students in grades 7-12. The county already meets the requirements for in-person classes for kindergarten through sixth grade.
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