As Vaccinations Increase Among Teens, Case Rates Decline 40% Among Children Over Last Three Weeks and School Outbreaks are Infrequent

28 New Deaths and 2,023 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

While case rates increased among children in all age groups between mid-July and mid-August, over the last three weeks, cases declined in all children age groups by 40%. The current case rate for 12 to 17 year-olds is 132 new cases per 100,000 teens; for 5 to 11 year-olds the case rate is now 141 new cases per 100,000 children; and for children 0 to 4, the case rate is 88 per 100,000 children.

With most of the 1.5 million children in grades K-12 now having returned to in-person instruction, Public Health is encouraged that case rates have not increased. The decreases are similar to the decreases seen among adult residents and occurred as many schools reopened with testing, masking, infection control and outbreak management protocols in place.

With the heightened awareness of vaccine effectiveness, Public Health’s highest priority is to increase vaccination rates among those eligible teens unvaccinated. As of September 12, 63% of LA County teens 12 to 15 years old had received at least one dose of vaccine, and 53% were fully vaccinated.  Among teens 16 to 17 years old, 70% had received at least one dose, and 61% were fully vaccinated.

Since August 16, 1,957 schools have reported at least one case to Public Health. School programs reporting one case increased initially from 467 during the first week of school to 562 during the second week of school; reports of single cases have declined over the most recent two weeks of monitoring to 414 sites. Sites reporting two cases remained at a similar level for the first three weeks of school at an average of nearly 250 sites, however the number of sites reporting two cases declined to 139 sites this week. Sites reporting three or more cases have been declining since the first week of school from 441 sites to 127 sites. There has been a 43% decrease in the number of schools reporting three or more cases between the most recent two weeks of monitoring.

In K-12 school settings countywide, between August 15 and September 13, 7,995 student cases and 1,1193 staff cases were reported, with the vast majority occurring at LAUSD, which tests everyone weekly. With more than 1.5 million students and 175,000 staff countywide (by last year’s counts), 0.5% of the student body and 0.7% of staff have become infected since school districts reopened. This is slightly higher than the 0.4% rate of infection experienced overall in the County. Given the massive testing of asymptomatic individuals at schools, this very low rate of infection affirms the safety provided to students and staff at schools.

Close contacts that are not fully vaccinated, are subject to quarantine for up to 10 days after exposure to a case.  Between August 15 and September 13, 15,655 student contacts and 1,056 staff contacts have been reported, with an additional 22,650 close contacts of unknown status reported, most of them suspected to be students. In total, nearly 2% of all staff and students countywide have been identified as a close contact of a case. Data to date indicates that very few of the identified close contacts have subsequently tested positive. As of last week, among the almost 30,000 people quarantined, 63 tested positive; this amounts to an overall secondary attack rate of 0.2%.

After reviewing four weeks’ worth of data related to cases, close contacts, and outbreaks at schools and with relatively low transmission at schools, Public Health is offering a modified quarantine option for K-12 students exposed to COVID-19 at school under certain circumstances.  Schools and school districts are not required to offer a modified quarantine option to their students and may choose to continue with the customary quarantine requirements.

Modified quarantine allows, under certain conditions, an unvaccinated student with an exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case to continue in-person instruction at school during their quarantine, while restricting their activities outside of the classroom. Those who qualify for modified quarantine include close contacts whose exposure took place at school or a school supervised activity when both the contact and the case were masked during the entire exposure period, and the close contacts are not part of a defined outbreak. The exposed student must remain asymptomatic for the duration of quarantine, stay home except for classroom and educational instruction activities, and continue to wear a mask indoors, outdoors, and on the school bus, except for when they are eating and drinking. While eating and drinking, they must maintain at least a six-foot distance from others; this should ideally take place outdoors. Students in modified quarantine must also be tested twice a week during their quarantine: the first test should be on day one through two after exposure, while the second test should be five days after exposure. Modified quarantine ends when a second test done at least five days after exposure is negative. In this scenario, the exposed student can end modified quarantine after day seven.

Today, Public Health confirms 28 new deaths and 2,023 new cases of COVID-19.  Of the 28 new deaths reported today, four people who passed away were over the age of 80, six people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, eight people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64, eight people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 29. One death was reported by the City of Pasadena. To date, Public Health identified 1,439,011 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 25,775 deaths.

There are 1,185 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 30% of these people are in the ICU. Testing results are available for more than 8,414,000 individuals with 16% of people testing positive. Today’s test positivity rate is 1.6%.

“To the families and friends experiencing the sorrow of losing a loved one due to COVID-19, we send you our deepest sympathies,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Safety at schools is amplified many-fold when vaccination coverage is very high, as widespread vaccination dramatically reduces transmission at schools, after school activities, community events and at home. Vaccinated teens are about eight times less likely to get infected than unvaccinated teens. Vaccinating teens protects the teens themselves and also protects the friends and family members with whom they share so much of their out-of-school time. Vaccinating teens also has the advantage of protecting younger children at school with whom they come in contact and who cannot be vaccinated. And because vaccinating teens also reduces transmission at school, it decreases the likelihood of outbreaks causing disruptions in learning. One major advantage of being vaccinated is that fully vaccinated students are more likely to stay in school after an exposure. That’s because our quarantine guidance currently exempts asymptomatic fully vaccinated individuals from quarantine. Along with our school partners, we’re working hard to ensure it’s easy for teens to get vaccinated.”

You can search for sites vaccinating teens near you online. Visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) and www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish) to find a vaccination site near you, make an appointment at vaccination sites, and much more. If you don’t have internet access, can’t use a computer, or you’re over 65, you can call 1-833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment, connecting to free transportation to and from a vaccination site, or scheduling a home-visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.

COVID-19 Sector Protocols, Best Practices, COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Recovery Dashboard, and additional actions you can take to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

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