One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
Spread Of Delta Variant Is Concentrated Among Unvaccinated Angelenos
A sign outside of a clinic in Maywood advertising COVID-19 testing.
(
Chava Sanchez/LAist
)
Tests show the highly transmissible Delta variant has been spreading in Los Angeles County since April, but cases have risen in the past month.
(
L.A. County Public Health Department
)
Unvaccinated people made up 89% of L.A. County’s reported 123 Delta variant cases. Two of them had to be hospitalized for treatment. Ten of the cases were in people who were fully vaccinated — but they were milder and none of them needed to be hospitalized.
(
L.A. County Public Health Department
)
The cases were clustered in Palmdale and Lancaster.
“I'm not concerned at all about a surge,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, citing overall low COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“I want to make sure that we address any disproportionality early on by identifying those places where we're seeing pockets of increase,” she said. “Because at this point, this is a pandemic of unvaccinated individuals.”
Sponsored message
Ferrer said it is vital that people receive both doses to get as much protection as possible, unless it’s the one shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
(
L.A. County Public Health Department
)
Despite high-profile vaccine lotteries and ticket giveaways, vaccinations have dropped steadily in June. Black young adults and teenagers have the lowest overall rates.
“We do continue to worry about the large decreases we're seeing in the numbers of folks getting their first dose of vaccine,” Ferrer said. “Now that we've reopened and safety modifications have been lifted in most settings, we really would like to see vaccination momentum increase.”
She added that almost everyone dying of COVID-19 in L.A. County has been unvaccinated.
(
L.A. County Public Health Department
)
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
