Los Angeles Covid Test Positivity Up 25% In The Past Week As Concerns About Winter Wave Grow
05.11.2022 - 02:23
/ deadline.com
Temperatures have cooled drastically in Los Angeles over the past few days, with unseasonable rain and cold nights conjuring up thoughts of the coming holidays and, as has been the case the past two years, fears of a coming Covid wave.
“We’re really at a point that may be a crossroads here. As we’re entering into the cooler months, we are starting to see the emergence of sublineage variants of omicron,” White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on the Conversations on Health Care radio show yesterday.
In fact, across the country, the long-dominant BA.5 variant no longer holds that distinction. It is being pushed out by a rogue’s gallery of new strains including BQ1.1, BQ1, BA4.6 and BF.7, the combined proportions of which are now larger than BA.5 for the first time in months.
For the past month, LA County has been noting signals that the local case rate may no longer be declining. The steady drop observed since July appeared to plateau in mid-October — and now indicators look to be headed upward.
This week, L.A. County is reporting a nearly 10% increase in the 7-day-average number of cases from one week ago. Today, L.A. County Public Health reported 7 additional deaths and 1,447 new positive cases. That number of new cases, while certainly an undercount, is the highest single day tally in weeks.
The 7-day average test positivity rate has risen more than 25% in the past week, to 5% today. That’s quite a jump in a number that is averaged over the course of a week to smooth out data hiccups.
While Omicron BA.5 continues to be the dominant subvariant, each week it is accounting for a smaller proportion of samples in L.A. As of the week ending Oct. 15, it accounted for about 72% of sequenced specimens. BF.7, a