By Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 2,498 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 28 deaths, but the surge due to the Delta variant appears to be plateauing.
Cases continue to rise but not at the same rate as several weeks ago, plus the county is reporting that testing is also increasing, so more cases are being identified. Most crucially the test positivity rate is declining. On August 2 the seven-day average positivity rate was 6 percent, but as of Sunday had dropped to 4.3 percent.
Daily hospitalization on the other hand are on the rise with 1,096 people hospitalized on August 2 compared with 1,573 on Wednesday.
Of the 28 deaths reported, six were over the age of 80, 12 were between 65 and 79, four were between 50 and 64, and five were between 30 and 49.
Los Angeles County reinstated its indoor mask mandate three weeks ago and since then the case load has increased much slower than the rest of the state. The county reported 19,704 cases for the week ending August 1, and 20,979 cases for the week ending August 8, an increase of 6.5 percent. For the same time period the state reported 46,000 to 55,422 an increase of 20.2 percent.
“Although there may be reasons beyond masking contributing to this difference, data from around the world and from our county has repeatedly shown that masking is a valuable layer of protection, and we are grateful to everyone who is doing their part by masking up to help slow the spread,” health officials said.
Here in Claremont infections continue to rise with 59 new cases reported in the last week for a cumulative total of 2,506. Three weeks ago deaths in Claremont were scaled down to 59, but now the county is reporting 60. It’s not clear if that is a new fatality.