By Jorge Casuso
January 24, 2022 -- Coronavirus cases in Santa Monica dropped to the lowest level in a month as the record wave triggered by the highly contagious Omicron variant appears to be waning.
According to County of Los Angeles Health data, there were 1,178 COVID cases confirmed last week, the lowest number since 1,085 cases were reported during Christmas week.
The weekly tally marked a sharp drop from the record 1,902 cases reported three weeks ago, according to an analysis of County data by the Lookout.
For the second week in a row, two Santa Monica residents were reported to have died with the virus.
The two COVID-related deaths -- which typically take about two weeks to report -- bring the total number of deaths to 202 in the city of some 93,000 residents.
Since Omicron began taking hold across the country in mid-December, the total number of coronavirus cases in Santa Monica has nearly doubled -- from 7,295 cases in the week ending December 12 to 14,769 cases on Sunday.
During that period, the number of virus-related deaths has increased by six, with two of the deaths taking place when the more fatal Delta variant was the predominant strain in the County.
It is unknown how many of the recent deaths are among those infected with the Omicron, as opposed to the Delta variant.
The decrease in the number of confirmed cases in Santa Monica reflects a Countywide trend that saw cases drop to about 250,000 last week, from 291,000 cases reported over the previous seven days.
The positivity rate has dropped from 17.4 percent a week ago Sunday to 13.8 percent yesterday, County officials reported.
Meanwhile, daily hospitalizations have also decreased from a high of 4,814 people hospitalized with the virus on Thursday to 4,573 on Sunday, according to Public Health data.
Some 60 percent of those hospitalized were admitted for unrelated reasons and learned they were infected after being tested during admission, health officials have said.
County Health Director Barbara Ferrer said on Saturday that the "small decreases" in daily cases, hospitalizations and test positivity rate "are hopeful signs that the spread of Omicron is declining"
But she warned that "we will need to remain cautious these next few weeks while transmission remains at the highest levels we have ever seen."
To date, health officials have identified a total of 2,519,778 positive cases of COVID-19 across the County of more than 10 million. A total of 28,507 virus-related deaths have been reported.
Testing results are available for more than 10,910,500 individuals, with 21 percent of those testing positive.
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