The number of coronavirus patients at Los Angeles County hospitals was holding steady at 305, up from 285 a day earlier but down from 321 a week ago, according to the latest state data released Saturday.
Of those patients, 25 were being treated in intensive care, the same total as last weekend.
The statewide total of COVID-positive patients was 1,413 as of Saturday, down slightly from last weekend’s total and down considerably from more than 4,600 at the end of last year.
Some of the hospitalized patients were admitted for other reasons and learned they had COVID after a mandated test.
County health officials reported another 3,114 cases of COVID-19 and 44 additional deaths associated with the virus in their latest weekly report on Wednesday. Those totals were in line with previous week’s report of 3,023 cases and 59 deaths.
Weekly case and death counts represent the numbers reported for the week ending each Tuesday. The date a case/death is reported by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health is not the same as the date of testing or death.
A majority of people who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension, health officials have said.
On Thursday, the county reported the first local cases of a newly emerging strain of COVID-19, although the numbers remain generally low and current vaccines are believed to be effective in preventing severe illness from it.
Commonly referred to as Arcturus, the strain is formally known as XBB.1.16, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told reporters in a briefing. According to the results of the most recent sequencing of select cases, the strain represented roughly 1.3% of the cases that were examined.
That’s a mere fraction of the currently dominant strain in the nation and county, known as XBB.1.5, which accounts for 71% of local cases according to the most recent testing data.
Modeling done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that Arcturus accounts for about 7% of cases nationwide, and nearly 10% of cases in the western region that includes California, Ferrer said.
Arcturus has primarily been seen in India, and Ferrer said experts are still analyzing its effects. While no formal studies have been done, she said that anecdotal evidence out of India suggests the variant appears to be infecting young children at higher rates than other strains.
She also said the strain appears to be more often linked to the development of pink eye, or conjunctivitis. But Ferrer said the evidence is still anecdotal, so it’s still too early to say definitively that pink eye is more common with XBB.1.16.
Ferrer said the county will be closely monitoring spread of the virus strain, but she noted that XBB.1.16 and all other currently circulating strains are offshoots of the Omicron variant, which is targeted by the currently available COVID-19 vaccine booster.
While the new strain should not be considered cause for alarm, Ferrer said it should serve as a reminder that COVID-19 continues to evolve, and residents should continue to exercise caution against virus spread.
She noted that Los Angeles County is still in the “low” COVID community level category, for the 14th week in a row.
“We are seeing much lower numbers of people dying. However, these deaths are not insignificant, and COVID continues to be a leading cause of death in L.A. County and across the country,” she said.