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L.A.’s Fully-Vaccinated People Made Up 1-in-5 Infections

L.A.’s Fully-Vaccinated People Made Up 1-in-5 Infections

Los Angeles County’s top health official said fully vaccinated people made up one-in-five Covid-19 infections in June and warned that the figure may rise in July with a higher level of community transmission.

Those who have had the full dose of the vaccines made up 20% of cases last month, up from 11% in May. The percentage also climbed as more people were inoculated, increasing the base of fully-vaccinated residents. The “vast majority” of those vaccinated who tested positive had no symptoms or very mild illness, said Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director.

“We had a significant increase in the number of people who were fully vaccinated and tested positive,” Ferrer said in a briefing Thursday. “The numbers can go up again in July, until we get the community transmission back in control.”

The data came a week after the county of 10 million announced plans to reimpose its indoor mask order, which began Sunday, as cases jumped with the highly-contagious delta variant. The number of infections surged to 2,767 Thursday, she said, an 80% increase from the previous week.

The rise in cases also pushed the transmission rate in L.A. to a “high” level from “substantial,” she said. In spite of the so-called breakthrough cases, the vaccines remain the most effective tool to fight the virus, she said, adding that they’ve shown to also protect against the delta variant.

“More people around you are infected,” she said. “It just increases the chances of getting infected.”

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.