L.A. County sees COVID rise due to Delta variant
03 July 2021
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health this week asked residents to wear face masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated, due to a rise in coronavirus cases.
The state of play: County health officials said the Delta variant, first detected in India, is rapidly spreading across the county's unvaccinated population. Cases in the county have doubled and hospitalizations are up by 30%, the Los Angeles Times notes.
- For Black residents, hospitalizations rose by 11% between May and June.
- About 51% of county residents are fully vaccinated.
What they're saying: "We have enough risk and enough unvaccinated people for Delta to pose a threat to our recovery. And masking up now could help prevent a resurgence in transmission," said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, per the Times.
- "This is a precautionary recommendation, given that we don’t have all the information we wish we had."
- Ferrer pointed out that while vaccines are highly effective, there is "increasing evidence that a very small number of fully vaccinated individuals can become infected with the Delta variant and may be able to infect others."
The big picture: The rise in cases comes as more people question whether the vaccines can protect against variants. The CDC has doubled down on its own guidelines, saying that vaccinated individuals can unmask.
- "Vaccinated Americans have been deemed safe from variants so far including the Delta variant," Axios' Marisa Fernandez writes.
Go deeper: Delta variant threatens masking guidance
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.