U.S. Los Angeles County reports highest single-day increase since February

LOS ANGELES, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles reported 3,058 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest single-day increase since Feb. 13.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a release that it was the third day in a row with more than 2,500 daily cases reported. Over the last four days, more than 10,000 cases were reported in the most populous county in the United States, home to over 10 million residents.

As of Friday, 655 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in the county, versus 452 treated in hospital last Friday. The test positivity rate is 5.2 percent, an increase from 4 percent seven days ago, according to the department.

Health officials urged people to get vaccinated amid the Delta variant surge in the county, warning unvaccinated people are becoming infected at a rate 2.7 times that just one month ago.

"If we didn't have 5.3 million people fully vaccinated in L.A. County, we would probably be seeing almost double the number of cases today," Barbara Ferrer, the county's director of public health, said in the release.

The local health department also reported seven new deaths on Friday. The county has identified 1,279,171 cases with 24,614 deaths to date.

Official data showed that of the nearly 10.3 million county residents, including those who are not yet eligible for the vaccine, 52 percent were fully vaccinated and 59 percent had received at least one dose as of Thursday.