The new Omicron variant has swept across southern California over the past few weeks, with large numbers of new COVID-19 cases continuing to emerge in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego counties.
Many school districts have been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak. The second largest school district in the country, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), reported that one in four students were absent last week.
However, the number of K-12 students and staff who tested positive for the disease fell to 11 percent in the week ended Jan. 15, down from 15 percent the previous week, district officials said.
Meanwhile, the number of deaths reported in Los Angeles County on January 20 was the highest since March 10, 2021.
102 county residents were reported to have died from COVID-19 on Thursday, more than double the number reported the previous week. The report also states that 90 percent of these deaths were in people who were infected after December 24, so they were likely infected with the Omicron variant.
With the virus’ relentless spread, Neeraj Sood, director of the COVID initiative at the University of Southern California, said the public health response to the pandemic must move away from minimizing infections.
“With new options continuing to result in a significant spike in infections — even in a place like Los Angeles County, which has some of the most stringent mask requirements and the most extensive testing capacity in the country — we need to shift our response to pandemic from minimizing infections to minimizing harm. from infections,” the Court said.
San Diego and Orange counties are also seeing a significant spike in COVID-19 cases. On Friday, San Diego County officials reported 11,235 new cases, up from 10,990 new cases the previous Friday.
The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Orange County is also on the rise. The county has the highest number of COVID-19 patients since February 4 last year, as well as the highest number of children hospitalized due to COVID.
Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Public Health Agency, said this week that 14 children are currently in intensive care units.
The recent surge also sparked a strike Thursday in Orange County. Dozens of county social service employees protested outside their office and asked to work from home at least two days a week after a number of employees tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks.
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