Tests show the highly transmissible Delta variant has been spreading in Los Angeles County since April, but cases have risen in the past month.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
