(Los Angeles, CA) — The latest subvariant of Covid-19, B-A-2, is now the predominant variant in Los Angeles County. The main concern is with school outbreaks. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer — who is not a medical doctor–says the county has seen around 878 new cases per day over the last week. That’s up from 660 per day from the week before. The positive news is that hospitals have not seen a surge in Covid patients or death. But Ferrer says she’s concerned about the surge in schools. The county just reported “one of the largest outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic” in a K-12 school. They attribute the surge to the B-A-2 subvariant, which is highly transmissible, and the lifting of indoor mask-wearing mandates at school. Not surprisingly, Ferrer is back on the mask kick: She adds that she knows people hate the masks, but the masks really helped, and to not dismiss them if needed again.
The B-A-Two Omicron subvariant is growing in Los Angeles County, accounting for 47-percent of positive test samples sequenced in labs, according to the county public health department. But, those test samples are from two weeks ago, meaning its most likely now the dominant strain. L.A. County has seen a steady rise in daily case numbers in recent weeks, but the hospitalization total is still low, and the death rate keeps declining.