COVID Cases Among Pregnant Women Triple In Los Angeles County

LOS ANGELES, CA — Coronavirus cases among pregnant women have recently tripled across Los Angeles, county health officials announced Monday. The troubling trend comes as COVID-19 cases continued to climb in Los Angeles and as a new study shows that infected babies and toddlers are more likely to spread the disease than older children.

Pregnant women are at particularly high risk for serious complications of COVID-19. According to the county, there have been 11,264 confirmed COVID cases among pregnant women as of Aug. 10, the vast majority of them Latina. Twelve of those women who tested positive have died from complications of the disease locally. There were 27 cases reported among pregnant women during the week that ended June 27 and 81 reported during the week ending July 25.

"Unfortunately, pregnant women are at high risk for serious health problems if they become infected with COVID-19," county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement. "Getting vaccinated is the best way to reduce the risks of COVID-19 infection and complications for both you and your baby. If you are pregnant or a new mom, we encourage you to get vaccinated as soon as you can and you can get vaccinated at any time during pregnancy. Studies continue to show the vaccines are safe for expecting and new moms and are very effective against COVID-19 and the Delta variant."

A Canadian study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics Monday found that babies and toddlers are more likely to infect others in their household than older children, the New York Times reported. It's unclear why although close proximity to caretakers is considered a factor. The study would seem to undermind earlier presumptions that small children are rarely infected. Low caseloads among small children earlier on in the pandemic may have been due to the fact that they were less likely to encounter people from other households than school-age children.

Pediatric COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County grew by five times in July, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Coronavirus hospitalizations among children four years old and younger doubled over that same period. There are roughly 1.3 million children in Los Angeles County too young to be vaccinated, and most of them returned to school this week. Though they return among an unnerving surge in cases, officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District have instituted one of the nation's most aggressive protection protocols, requiring teachers to be vaccinated along with universal masking and routine COVID-19 testing for staff and students.

The county Department of Public Health reported 2,426 new COVID-19 cases Monday, raising the overall total from throughout the pandemic to 1,352,791. The five new deaths lifted the county's overall death toll to 24,905.

There were 1,679 people hospitalized in the county with COVID-19 as of Monday, including 402 in intensive care, according to state figures. That was up from 1,653 overall patients and 377 ICU patients reported Sunday.

Cases have been reported at an average rate of more than 3,000 cases a day for about the past week, and a rise in case numbers can be expected in the coming weeks with increased testing at schools and businesses, according to county health officials.

County figures show that the vast majority of people hospitalized with COVID are not vaccinated. During the month of July, vaccinated residents represented just 13% of people hospitalized with the virus.

According to the health department, infection rates show that unvaccinated people are almost four times more likely to get infected with COVID-19. The case rate for unvaccinated individuals is 243 cases per 100,000 people, while the case rate for fully vaccinated people is 66 cases per 100,000 people. Vaccinated people are about 14 times less likely to be hospitalized than their unvaccinated or partially vaccinated counterparts, health officials said.

With the newly provided blessing of the federal government, L.A. County health officials began offering third doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID- 19 vaccines Saturday for people with severely compromised immune systems.

Among those qualifying for the booster shots are organ transplant recipients, people undergoing cancer treatment, HIV patients and people on select "immunosuppressive medications."

The health department urged people to consult their doctors to confirm their eligibility for the third shot, which should be administered at least 28 days following the second dose.

The third doses are being offered at vaccination sites in the county offering the Pfizer and Moderna shots. People looking for the shots will be able to simply "self-attest" that they have a qualifying medical condition.

The booster shots received final approval last week from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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