Good morning. It's Wednesday, May 29. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
How worried should we be about the new COVID variants?
The national COVID-19 emergency ended just over a year ago. Gov. Gavin Newsom terminated California's emergency orders at the end of February 2023. But coronavirus is still out there — now in more variants and subvariants. The newest ones causing concern are officially known as KP.2, KP.3 and KP.1.1 but have been given the nickname FLiRT (an acronym for the amino acid changes that led to the strains' mutations).
The latest data show that those subvariants are the dominant COVID family in the U.S., jumping from about 20% of infections a month ago to more than 50%.
State health officials say summer could bring an uptick in cases following a low-transmission spring.
"COVID-19 concentrations in wastewater have suggested increases in several regions across California since early May," the state Department of Public Health said in a statement last week. "Test positivity for COVID-19 has been slowly increasing since May."
Travelers at Los Angeles International Airport. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Health officials won't be surprised to see increased COVID cases this summer, just as we've experienced in previous summers. We travel more, congregate on weekends and holidays and tend to gather inside to escape the heat.
So how worried should we be? The Times' Rong-Gong Lin II provided some context in his reporting this week:
"Despite their increased transmissibility, the new mutations don't appear to result in more severe disease. And the vaccine is expected to continue working well, given the new subvariants are only slightly different from the winter version."
However, because the FLiRT subvariants are more easily transmitted, doctors advise that people at higher risk for severe COVID-19 infections take precautions. Those include:
- Staying up to date on COVID vaccinations
- Avoiding sick people, some of whom might not know if they have COVID or a cold
- Masking up in crowded settings
- Taking Paxlovid (which for many should be easier to get) if infected
The strongest risk factor for severe COVID-19 continues to be age, according to the CDC. People with certain underlying medical conditions — including asthma, cancer, diabetes and serious heart conditions — are also at heightened risk.
"California recently achieved a significant COVID milestone — zero deaths on a single calendar day, April 2, a feat not achieved since the first days of the pandemic," Rong-Gong noted. That week, he wrote, Los Angeles County also experienced a new record low for deaths — an average of 0.14 a day.
Fewer people are being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19, but health officials say the virus remains deadlier than the flu. And one doctor Rong-Gong spoke to said evidence is mounting that getting COVID more times increases the risks of developing long COVID.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 107,000 Californians have died of COVID-19.
Today's top stories
Academic workers at UCLA went on strike Tuesday, alleging their rights have been violated by University of California actions during pro-Palestinian protests and encampment crackdowns. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Pro-Palestinian campus unrest:
Ozempic:
Climate and environment:
More big stories:
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Today's great reads
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Where does L.A.'s leftover produce go? This group helps get tons to the hungry every day. Food Forward saves nearly 2 million pounds of produce every week. It all started with a slow walk through a Los Angeles neighborhood full of unpicked fruit.
Other great reads:
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your downtime
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
And finally ... a great photo
Show us your favorite place in California! We're running low on submissions. Send us photos that scream California and we may feature them in an edition of Essential California.
Jay 305's latest EP, "Don't Wait Until I Die," made in collaboration with rapper and producer Hit-Boy, takes a page from the deep, oily, enveloping scents that have become his signature. (Jheyda McGarrell / For The Times)
Today's great photo is from Times contributor Jheyda McGarrell. Pictured is South-Central rapper Jay 305 at Scent Bar DTLA.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor and Saturday reporter
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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