COVID-19 cases in L.A. County that have been steadily climbing this summer are seeing the first possible sign of reprieve, with about 420 cases as of Aug.
21, after reaching a high of some 480 cases last week. The summer surge is thanks to the latest mutation known as KP.3.
1.1, which is part of a family of variants nicknamed FLiRT. "It kind of came out of the blue," said Dr.
Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at UC San Francisco. "KP. 3.
1.1, which kind of came in mid-summer, kept the fires burning essentially with COVID." According to the latest figures from the CDC, KP.
3.1.1 accounted for close to 37% — the majority — of all COVID infections in the first three weeks of August.
But the latest L.A. County numbers are adding to recent evidence of abatement.
"In the West Coast, Region 9, including California and Hawaii, test positivity is already starting to go down, even though we're still very high in terms of wastewater," Chin-Hong said. On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved updated vaccines to tackle these strains, including a FLiRT variant. Pharmacies and doctors are expected to receive these new COVID shots soon.
More importantly, despite the punch these new strains are delivering, we are not close to how things were at the height of the pandemic. "Every year, even though we have so much virus going on in the community causing a lot of disruptions, the hospital curve is going down," said Chin-Hong. But almost fiv.