by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

The long anticipated third wave of the coronavirus seems to have struck Los Angeles County, although the number of new cases here is not as extreme as in other parts of the country.

Here in L.A. County, daily new cases have been above 2,000 for the last week as the positivity rate increased as well. A heartbreaking rise in hospitalizations has fortunately not been matched by an increase in the number of daily deaths.

New cases in the county for the last week averaged out to 2,104 with the positivity rate rising from 4.9 to 5.6 percent. Over that same time period, the number of people hospitalized has increased from 825 to 903. More than 3,302,000 people have been tested, and nine percent were positive since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Wednesday the L.A. County Department of Public Health announced 2,152 new COVID-19 infections and 22 deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been 327,964 cumulative cases and 7,216 deaths.

The nation recorded 145,000 new cases Wednesday, which is just the latest all-time high. At least 241,000 Americans have died. Nationwide new cases have risen by 34.3 percent, hospitalizations are up by 23 percent and deaths increased by nine percent, according to the Washington Post.

Cases are surging across the Midwest, including Iowa where the case rate has increased 81 percent in the last week. Oklahoma’s cases are up 69 percent and in Kansas 67 percent.

Of the top ten counties with the highest cases rates per 100,000 residents, three are in Texas while two are in Kansas and two in Iowa. Childress County, Texas has the highest case rate over the last seven days with 8,788 cases per 100,000 residents, followed by Jones County, Texas with 4,459 cases and Norton County, Kansas with 3,883.

Even in Hawaii, which has had relatively small outbreak, the case rate is up 61 percent this week. In New York, where 33,511 people have died, more than any other state, cases are up 66 percent.

By contrast, here in California cases are up 44 percent, which is too high, but less than the rate in 31 other states.

On Tuesday 11 counties, including San Diego, had slipped back into the most restrictive tier in the governor’s Blueprint to a Safer Economy. But statewide the uptick in cases is considered relatively slow and health officials say there is no conclusive sign that the surge seen in the summer will return, according to the Los

Angeles Times.

In Claremont the cumulative recorded cases now stands at 541, an increase of 6.4 percent from a week ago when there were 506 cases. There are no new confirmed deaths in Claremont or new institutional outbreaks.