by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported on Wednesday that the current Omicron fueled surge appears to be declining — the same day that it marked the two-year anniversary of the first coronavirus case in the county.

Tragically, the county also reported on Wednesday the county’s youngest victim of COVID-19, a 15-month-old child.

“As we mark the two-year anniversary of the first case detected in L.A. County, I send my heartfelt condolences and wishes of healing to the family who suffered the devastating loss of their small child, and to the countless people who have lost a loved one to this pandemic,” Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said.

The county recorded 20,866 new infections on Wednesday, about half the daily count from 10 days ago, however, deaths remain high with 91 people dying from COVID-19 Wednesday.

In a stark sign of how contagious the Omicron variant is, on Wednesday the state reached 8,000,000 cumulative cases, including 2.5 million since New Year’s Day. Over the span of 26 days the state has recorded nearly 80 percent of the 3.1 million cases recorded during all of 2021, according to data collected by the Los Angeles Times.

Those numbers are widely believed to be a vast undercount because many people test at home now and others are either asymptomatic or have such mild symptoms that they do not know they are positive for the virus.

The pace of new infections in Claremont has not slowed much, with 504 new cases recorded this week compared with 532 last week, for a cumulative total of 5,481. Sadly, the county is reporting one new death, bringing the total mortality in Claremont to 71.

Public Health has identified a total 2,560,768 cumulative cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and 4,534 people currently hospitalized. The positivity rate continues to fall, dropping to 13.6% on Wednesday, down from nearly 23% a few weeks ago.