L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer noted that the BA.5 variant of the virus now represents about 88% of all specially sequenced COVID-19 cases in the county, so it remains the domina…
LOS ANGELES — COVID-related hospitalizations fell below the 1,000 mark in Los Angeles County on Thursday, Aug. 18, reflecting continued drops in infection numbers, although the public health director warned that transmission of the infectious BA.5 variant of the virus remains high, necessitating personal precautions.
“At the moment … there are no sub-variants or sub-lineages that are poised to circulate more widely in L.A. County than BA.5,” Ferrer said. “This is good news, as our recent history has linked a proliferation of new strains with increased transmissibility. As we discussed before, it is likely that all of the currently circulating sub-variants have an ability to cause repeat re-infections for those who have already had COVID.
County officials have said that roughly 43% of the COVID-positive patients were actually admitted for virus-related illness, while the others were admitted for other reasons, with some only learning they were infected when they were tested at the hospital.
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