Five out of nine Bay Area counties Monday advanced into the “low” COVID-19 community level for the first time since the summer BA.5 surge. The highly transmissible BA.5 strain of the omicron coronavirus variant made up about 89% of the known coronavirus cases in the U.S. last week. In one California county, just 4% of pre-teens are vaccinated against COVID.
Nearly 300 Google employees infected in Los Angeles outbreak
Google’s Los Angeles-area campuses are experiencing one of the largest COVID-19 workplace outbreaks in the state, with nearly 300 employees currently infected with the virus, according to the L.A. County Public Health dashboard. The tech company’s Playa Vista complex added 135 new cases over the weekend, Deadline reports, adding to the 145 infections reported at its Venice office on Friday. The combined 280 infections constitute the largest current tally for any employer in the county, the report says. By comparison, 274 TSA employees at Los Angeles International Airport are infected, and 234 American Airlines workers have COVID-19. Google has 2,000 employees in Los Angeles, based on a report last year from Los Angeles Business Journal. That means 14% of its workforce is currently impacted by the virus.
5 Bay Area counties move into “low” community tier
Five out of nine Bay Area counties Monday advanced into the “low” COVID-19 community level tier based on hospitalization rates, for the first time since the summer BA.5 surge, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, San Mateo and Alameda counties were in the agency’s lowest tier. Napa, Solano, Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties moved out of “high” and into “medium,” determined by the rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions and inpatient beds used by those patients, based on the current level of new cases. However, according to the CDC’s coronavirus transmission map, all counties in the region remain in the “high” virus transmission category, based on the rates of new cases and positive tests — a category that comprises 92% of the U.S. population.
BA.5 and BA.4.6 tighten grip on U.S.
The highly transmissible BA.5 strain of the omicron coronavirus variant made up about 89% of the sequenced coronavirus cases in the United States last week, according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The newest sublineage of the variant, BA.4.6, made up 6.3% of cases nationally, and BA.4 regressed slightly to appear in 4.3% of sequenced cases. All other variants of the virus have effectively faded away. The U.S. is averaging about 88,000 new confirmed COVID-19 cases per day, down from about 129,000 a month ago.
Children’s COVID-19 cases remain critically high as school resumes
There were 79,525 confirmed child COVID-19 cases in the U.S. last week, according to data published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. Cases among children under 18 in the U.S. have stabilized over the past two weeks following the summer surge but remain stubbornly high after dropping to around 25,000 a week in April. With the academic year starting, many schools have dropped virus mitigation measures in alignment with updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which no longer requires masking, testing or quarantining for asymptomatic students and staff.
Los Angeles County offers free COVID-19 testing for pets
Public health officials in Los Angeles County are offering free coronavirus testing for pets that were exposed to a human or animal with COVID-19 or have symptoms of the disease. The tests will be offered through select veterinarians and animal care facilities. “This project will help us to learn more about COVID-19 from a one health perspective, meaning that we can learn more about the significance of COVID-19 in human, animal, and environmental relationships,” Los Angeles County’s Veterinary Public Health department said. “Our goal is to test many different species of animals including wildlife (deer, bats, raccoons), pets (dogs, cats, hamsters, pocket pets), marine mammals (seals), and more.” Symptoms of COVID-19 in animals may include fever, coughing, lethargy, sneezing and loss of appetite.
