102 Daily Covid Deaths Confirmed In Los Angeles Wednesday

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles County reported 102 coronavirus deaths Wednesday, an unnervingly high number as the city prepares to welcome an influx of visitors for the Super Bowl next week. The stark tally is a reminder of the risk that remains as Southlanders plan gatherings for the big game.

The deaths also marked a grim milestone, pushing the city past 29,000 COVID fatalities since the pandemic began. But new cases are falling dramatically and hospitalizations and testing positivity rates are slowing. The county reported another 15,664 COVID infections Wednesday, a fraction of the peak in January. The rate of people testing positive for the virus was 8.8% as of Wednesday, roughly the same as Tuesday's 8.9% — but well below the 20% rate seen a month ago.

As the Omicron surge begins to recede, it's apparent that the same communities hardest hit in previous surges bore the brunt of this wave too. The San Fernando Valley, South Los Angeles, and East LA — all with large, dense populations of working-class communities — experienced cases and hospitalizations at higher rates than the county's most affluent communities, according to the Los Angeles County Department Of Public Health.

County health officials on Wednesday also touted continued declines in the numbers of school students and staff testing positive for the virus, and the accompanying decline in the positivity rate.

According to the county, for the week of Jan. 24-28, schools conducted more than 486,600 tests, with 21,472 coming back positive, for a positivity rate of 4.4%. Health officials said there were nearly 40,700 positive tests the prior week, when the positivity rate was 7%.

The county, however, continues struggling to improve vaccination rates among children. According to figures released last week, only 31% of children aged 5-11 had received at least one dose, and only 21% were fully vaccinated.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Moderna COVID vaccine, and Pfizer has announced plans to seek approval for a vaccine for chidren under 5.

"We hope that with full approval of the Moderna vaccine, which follows full approval a few months back of the Pfizer vaccine, residents and workers are reassured about the safety and effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines distributed in the United States," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. "Our county data continues to demonstrate the protections offered by vaccination and the importance of using vaccines to reduce the spread and limit the ability of virus replication that could result in problematic variants.

"To date, we're closing in on nearly one million children across all L.A. County who've safely received the vaccine. We urge parents and students to attend one of the 900 school-based vaccination clinics this month if they are not yet vaccinated or need a booster dose."

According to figures released last week, 81% of eligible county residents aged 5 and above have received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and 72% are fully vaccinated. Only 32% are fully vaccinated with a booster shot. Of the county's overall 10.3 million population, 77% have received one dose, 69% are fully vaccinated, and 31% are vaccinated and boosted.

Of the more than 6.5 million fully vaccinated residents in the county, 580,942 have subsequently gotten infected with COVID, for a rate of 8.9%. That's a notably higher rate than December, when it was 2%, an increase Ferrer attributed to the highly transmissible Omicron variant. But the number of fully vaccinated residents who have been hospitalized was 6,998 as of this month, for a rate of 0.1%. The number who have died is 886, for a rate of 0.01%.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.