As Omicron Reaches 95% of Cases, the Percent of the Vaccinated Population Catching Covid Increased 36% Last Week, According to Los Angeles County Health Department Data

January 14, 2022 - While the rate of the vaccinated contracting Covid-19 remained somewhat below the rate of the unvaccinated contracting the disease, 36% more of the vaccinated caught Covid last week compared to the previous week. On Thursday, the county hit a new record, with 45,584 new Covid cases.

The percent of the vaccinated population who’d contracted Covid was 1% on September 30. That percent has steadily been increasing. As of January 8, 4.6% of the vaccinated population had caught Covid at some point. 36% of this 460% increase occurred during the past week of surge, when Omicron reached 95% of sequences sampled.

In her weekly media briefing on Thursday, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health, said she expected numbers to go up from here. “One thing for sure, we’re still increasing,” she said, in response to a question regarding her advice for celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year, which will fall on February 1.

As of January 8, 2022, statistice from the LA County Department of Public Health show:

Total number fully vaccinated: 6,966,936

Total Covid infections: 1,967,443

Fully vaccinated Covid infections: 321,025

Total Covid deaths: 27,785

Fully vaccinated Covid deaths: 661

The rate of death, once infected, lowered for both vaccinated and unvaccinated groups during the past week, perhaps a result in the huge number of new cases lagging behind the potential resulting deaths. For the unvaccinated, the non-age-adjusted case fatality rate was 1.65% (compared to 1.75% last week), and for the vaccinated the non-age-adjusted case fatality rate was .21% (compared to .31% last week). The rate of hospitalizations per case went down for both groups as well: 1.51% for the vaxxed (compared to 1.7% last week) and 6.5% for the unvaxxed (compared to 7% last week).

Out of a total 226,151 new Covid cases last week, 46.2% of them occurred in vaccinated individuals. With 70% of the county fully vaccinated, this means the vaccines appear to have provided 23.8% additional protection to infection over no-vaccine. (If vaccines were 0% effective, one would see 70% of new cases among the vaccinated.) Vaccines provide an additional 1.44% protection against death over no-vaccine. Another way of looking at it, preferred by health officials, is an 8 times greater chance of death among the unvaccinated should one contract Covid-19.