As the Omicron-fueled surge enters its fourth week, Los Angeles County is now witnessing an increase in COVID-19 deaths with total mortality cresting 28,000 over the weekend.

Omicron had appeared as though it was less deadly with daily totals barely cresting 20, but last Wednesday that changed when the county recorded 39 deaths, followed by 45 on Thursday, 48 on Friday, 66 on Saturday and 53 on Sunday.

On Monday, 27 more people died, bringing the cumulative total to 28,086. However, health officials warn that count may be low due to reporting delays caused by the holiday weekend.

Meanwhile, the staggering pace of new cases continues with another 41,765 cases reported on Saturday, followed by 43,883 Sunday and 31,576 on Monday — nearly ten times the daily case rate from one month ago.

There are 4,564 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized, nearly six times as many as in mid-December. The daily positivity rate is 16.5%, more than 8 times what it was on December 17. However, the positivity rate, which is a good indicator of how widespread the local outbreak is, has been falling for the last two weeks cresting at 22.7% on January 3.

Since the COURIER’s last report on Thursday an additional 434 people have tested positive, for a cumulative total of 4879 cases. Fortunately, Claremont has yet to see a spike in deaths like the one that occurred here in October, but with the high number of new cases, that seems unavoidable.