Today, Los Angeles County reported 37,215 new Covid-19 cases, by and away the largest single-day total of the pandemic. Hospitalizations and deaths have also increased in the last week, albeit they are still far below the heights seen during last winter's illness outbreak.

The daily case count surpassed a previous high reported by the county only a week ago. They were up 37% from the 27,091 reported the previous Friday. On Thursday, the county reported 30 more Covid-related deaths, more than doubling the previous week's total of 12.

Meanwhile, state data revealed that as of Thursday, there were 2,661 Covid-positive patients in county hospitals, up from 2,461 on Wednesday and more than double the 1,365 reported last Friday. On Thursday, 352 patients were being treated in intensive care units, up from 330 the day before.

Since mid-February 2021, the number of Covid-positive patients hasn't been this high. However, today's tally is still much below the high of over 8,000 reached last January during the peak of the viral outbreak that winter.

While hospital admissions have increased, officials have observed that the aggregate number of Covid and non-Covid patients has decreased.

“Unlike last winter’s surge when overall hospital census increased pretty significantly — and we also saw that over the summer surge — now with the current surge the hospital census has remained much more stable,” said county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “This can change. …But I do want to note that we haven’t seen the same rise we saw at the beginning of the winter surge last year with our surge in hospitalizations this time.”

In fact, many Covid-positive hospital patients are unlikely to have realized they were infected until they were admitted for another reason. According to Ferrer, around 75 percent of Covid-positive patients were hospitalized particularly due to symptoms connected with the virus in early November, before the highly transmissible Omicron Covid strain began spreading. However, just 45 percent of Covid patients were admitted explicitly because of the infection as of late December. The others just tested positive after being admitted to the hospital for treatment of other problems.

“It really makes a lot of sense when you’ve got a lot of community transmission you’re going to have more people testing positive who are asymptomatic for Covid illness but in this case getting hospitalized for something else,” she said. “It’s encouraging to see there are fewer people hospitalized for Covid illness during this surge, especially compared with prior surges. But I do want to note that even if folks aren’t in there getting care for Covid-related illness, Covid-positive patients represent a substantial strain on the health care system.

“People who test positive for Covid require resource-intensive transmission-based precautions, including isolation rooms, cohorted staff and personal protective equipment, all of which add a particularly high burden when so many of our hospitals are…short on staff,” she said.

Ferrer also pointed out that, considering the recent surge in instances, it's "early days yet" in terms of hospitalizations, which typically follow infections by 2-3 weeks. "because of the recent increases in hospitalizations, we could soon begin to see some increases in the number of deaths" she added. That spike, however, could be "many weeks" away, given that deaths follow hospitalizations.

Unvaccinated persons are considerably more likely to end up in the hospital than vaccinated people, according to new data released Thursday on Covid-positive hospital patients. Unvaccinated, vaccinated, and vaccinated-and-boosted hospitalizations are all on the rise, according to Ferrer. Unvaccinated people, on the other hand, are 38 times more likely to be admitted to the hospital than those who have been completely vaccinated and have received a booster.

The county amended its public health ordinance this week in response to rising infection rates, mandating firms to give enhanced masks to employees who work indoors in close contact with others.

The directive, which was announced on Wednesday, compels businesses to supply “well-fitting medical grade masks, surgical masks, or higher-level respirators, such as N95 or KN95 masks" to workers who are affected.

The updated order also changed the definitions of outdoor "mega events," which need masks, to 5,000 or more participants, and inside "mega" events to 500 or more persons. The figures are consistent with the state's health order. Food and drink should only be consumed in authorized dining areas, according to the county's decree.

The improved mask requirement for county employers follows a county order issued late last week mandating teachers and employees to wear higher-grade face coverings in K-12 schools. When in-person classes begin, USC stated this week that all students and employees will be required to wear higher-grade masks.

As of Thursday, the average daily percentage of those testing positive for the virus was 21.9 percent. A month ago, the rate was less than 1%. However, because of the number of persons who use take-home tests and don't report the findings, the testing-positivity rate may be artificially low.

The demand for Covid tests has been fast increasing, with huge lineups forming at testing sites all over the county. The high demand has resulted in a shortage of take-home tests, which are swiftly disappearing from store shelves.

Los Angeles County was forced to halt its free at-home testing program this week. Residents could sign up for the program on the county's website and have a Fulgent Genetics test shipped to their home. The initiative is now listed as paused on the county's website, with Fulgent explaining that it is on hold "because to strong demand and shipping difficulties."

Ferrer was questioned if the increased numbers of students returning to school this week and next week will force certain institutions to resort to online-only study.

“We think that there is testing capacity at the schools now to continue with that routine testing,” she said, even while acknowledging that “some schools have not received their test kits.” Ferrer cited confidence in in-person education, given the additional measures recently enacted.

She did, however, admit that the county had set a threshold of 3,000 hospitalizations as a trigger for “increased school safety protocols,” and that “we’re likely to get there. If we have more outbreaks at our schools, we’ll need to adjust our measures for quarantine.”

“We think that there is testing capacity at the schools now to continue with that routine testing," she added, despite the fact that “some schools have not received their test kits.” Ferrer stated trust in in-person schooling, citing recent indicators.

She did reveal, though, that the county had established a 3,000-hospitalization threshold as a trigger for increased school safety protocols,” and that “we’re likely to get there. If we have more outbreaks at our schools, we’ll need to adjust our measures for quarantine.”

Of the 3,000 hospitalizations she said, “It really was a threshold to increase testing,” explained Ferrer, “if we’re able to get those tests.”

According to Ferrer, efforts are being undertaken to increase the number of Covid testing locations.

Tomorrow morning, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and Interim Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District Megan Reilly will take part in a LAUSD Covid-19 at-home fast self-test distribution event. The distribution will begin at 8 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. throughout the district, which resumes classes next week.

Due to the present surge, Cal State Long Beach announced today that the spring semester will begin with at least two weeks of remote classes. Cal State Los Angeles announced earlier this week that the first three weeks of the spring semester will be conducted entirely online. USC will also hold two weeks of online classes. Both UCLA and UC Irvine have started their winter quarters, which will last at least two weeks.

Seventy-one percent of county residents aged five and up are fully immunized. A total of 67 percent of the county's 10.3 million residents are fully vaccinated.