LA County Surpasses 2 Million Total Cases; Hospitalizations Continue to Rise Amid Omicron

Public Health Jan. 10, reports another grim milestone as Los Angeles County has now confirmed more than 2 million total cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The current surge of COVID-19 infections also continues to drive up hospitalizations, as today the number of COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals has topped 3,400, the highest level since Feb. 11, 2021. 

The good news is that while hospitalizations continue to climb, Public Health data shows that many positive cases are admitted for reasons other than COVID but are identified with COVID when tested for COVID upon hospital admission.  These are referred to as incidental COVID hospitalizations. For the week ending Dec. 26, an estimated 55% of COVID-positive hospitalized patients fell into this category of incidental COVID hospitalizations. 

Currently 14% of the COVID-positive hospitalized patients are in the ICU, and 7% are on a ventilator. Additionally, 23% of ICU beds are currently being occupied by COVID-positive cases, an increase of 9% from last week. Between Dec. 15 and Dec. 28, the ICU admission rate for unvaccinated individuals was 21 times higher than the rate among fully vaccinated individuals. 

The proportion of hospitalizations among children has not changed from the prior week. While the total number of children hospitalized remains low and the proportion of hospitalizations among children remains stable, the number of children in each age group that were admitted to the hospital significantly increased over the past month.  The largest rise was seen among children 0-4 years old, increasing from four hospital admissions for the week ending Dec. 4 to 58 hospital admissions for the week ending Jan. Increases were also seen for the 12-to-17-year-old age group, from 1 hospital admission to 16 hospital admissions, and for the 5-to-11-year-old age group, from two hospital admissions to five hospital admissions, comparing the week ending Dec. 4 to the week ending Jan. 1. 

Public Health has identified a total 2,010,964 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County. The Jan. 10 positivity rate is 21.4%.

There are 3,472 people with COVID-19 hospitalized. Testing results are available for more than 10,113,300 individuals, with 16% of people testing positive. 

To keep workplaces and schools open, residents and workers are asked to:

Get tested to help reduce the spread, especially if you traveled for the holidays, have had a possible exposure, or have symptoms, or are gathering with people not in your household

Adhere to masking requirements when indoors or at crowded outdoor spaces, regardless of vaccination status

Residents are legally required to be isolated if they have a positive COVID test result and vaccinated close contacts with symptoms and unvaccinated close contacts need to be quarantined. 

For updated isolation and quarantine guidance, please visit www.publichealth.lacounty.gov

For information on where you can get tested, please visit www.covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/