- One in five people that tested positive for COVID-19 in LA County in June were fully-vaccinated.
- Vaccinated people who caught the virus mostly had mild symptoms, or none at all, officials said.
- The county recorded 2,767 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday — up 80% in a week, mostly caused by Delta.
One in five people that caught COVID-19 in LA County in June were fully vaccinated, health officials said Thursday.
Most of these fully vaccinated people developed mild symptoms, or none at all, they said.
The fast-spreading Delta variant is now causing the majority of infections in the county, which is the most populous county in the US.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a press release that “in June, fully-vaccinated people represented 20% of all cases diagnosed among LA County residents, while unvaccinated and partially vaccinated people accounted for 80% of cases.”
Most vaccinated people that caught the virus got mild or no symptoms, officials said.
The number of infections in fully-vaccinated people over the week to Thursday was up 58% compared to the previous week — but the number of fully-vaccinated people requiring hospital treatment for COVID-19 increased by just 0.0014%, and deaths in fully-vaccinated people increased by 0.0001%, the health officials’ data showed.
Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said that if you get COVID-19 after vaccination “your chances of both ending up in the hospital, ending up in an ICU, ending up intubated are much less than the chances of that happening if you’re somebody who is unvaccinated,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
The county recorded 2,767 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, up 80% from the week before, the officials said. The numbers would be “much higher” if there weren’t as many people fully-vaccinated, they said.
Fifty-two percent of LA County residents are fully-vaccinated and 59% have had at least one dose, slightly above the nation’s average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Vaccinated people can still spread Delta
As of Saturday, more than 85% of new cases in LA County were caused by the Delta variant, which is at least 50% more infectious than the formerly-dominant Alpha variant, and has mutations that help it avoid the immune response. The CDC said Tuesday that Delta now accounts for 83% of all new sequenced COVID-19 cases in the US.
LA County health officials said that “given that about 4 million residents in LA County are not yet vaccinated, the risk of increased spread of this variant within LA County remains high.”
They warned there was evidence that a “small number of fully-vaccinated individuals can become infected and may be able to infect others.”
For this reason, as of June 29, everyone over 2 years-old in LA County has to wear a mask in all indoor public places, regardless of their vaccination status. The CDC currently recommends vaccinated people don’t need masks, except in certain situations, such as public transport. Local areas can set their own rules.
Ferrer said that vaccinated people can be “reassured” about vaccine protection against severe COVID-19 disease, but given the “proliferation of the Delta variant,” it wasn’t clear how well the vaccines stopped people spreading the virus to others, she said.
“This is what masking up right now is really about: adding an extra layer of protection to prevent the heartache that comes from transmitting the virus to others,” she said.
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