LA County and Long Beach report further increase in COVID-19 cases • Long Beach Post News

In fact, during the month of June, 20% of all new COVID infections reported in the county occurred in people who had been fully vaccinated.

This was up from 11% in May and 5% in April. But public health director Barbara Ferrer said the increase is normal given the continued rise in the number of people fully vaccinated.

She also pointed out that fully vaccinated people who are infected usually have extremely mild cases – a benefit that vaccines have always promised.

“Very few of them have been hospitalized and an even smaller number have died,” Ferrer said. “So yes, if you are fully vaccinated you have a lot of protection, which is what vaccines have always been best at: protecting people from serious illness and death. And these vaccines, even with the “delta” variant, hold up very well. “

She said that the fact that fully vaccinated people are always infected should not be seen as ineffective vaccines and should not be used as an excuse to avoid getting the vaccine.

“While seat belts don’t prevent everything that can happen in a car accident, they provide great protection, so much so that we all use them regularly,” she said.

She noted that when the vaccination program began, the main benefit cited was their ability to prevent people from ending up in hospital or dying from the virus. With the county seeing an increase in infections – the vast majority among those who are not vaccinated – infections are expected to occur among those who have received the vaccines. And she noted that without vaccines, the number of infections would be much higher.

According to the county, of about 4.85 million fully vaccinated residents from Jan.19 to Tuesday, 6,520 have tested positive for the virus, for a rate of 0.13%. This is up from a rate of 0.09% last week.

Of those fully vaccinated during that period who tested positive, only 287 were hospitalized, a rate of 0.0059% of the vaccinated population, up from 0.0045% last week. There were 30 vaccinated people who died, a rate of 0.0006%.

The most recent figures provided by the county on Thursday show that 5.3 million of the county’s estimated 10.3 million people are fully immunized, a rate of around 52%. About 1.3 million people in the county are not eligible for the shootings because they are under 12 years old.

The county reported 2,767 new COVID infections on Thursday, the highest daily number since February. The new cases brought the county’s cumulative total since the start of the pandemic to 1,276,137. This was the 14th consecutive day with the number of daily cases exceeding 1,000.

Long Beach reported 138 new cases on Thursday. New daily cases per 100,000 population and seven-day positivity rate increased again at 16.6 and 8.3%, respectively.

In the county, the average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus edged up to 5.26% on Thursday, from 5.2% a day earlier. A month ago, the rate was 0.7%.

After being stable at 37 for five days, hospitalizations at facilities in the Long Beach area jumped to 47, its highest level since mid-March.

13 more deaths were reported by the county, bringing the total death toll to 24,607. Long Beach has reported one new death from COVID-19, for a total of 950 deaths.

Health officials have bluntly pointed the finger at the highly infectious delta strain of COVID-19 for the recent increase in cases locally and across the country. The variant, first detected in India, has increased in prevalence statewide and now accounts for the vast majority of confirmed variants in the county.

COVID-19 has not gone away. Here are resources for getting help and staying up to date.