By Jorge Casuso

January 31, 2022 -- Coronavirus cases in Santa Monica dropped to the lowest level since the Omicron variant became the dominant strain in Los Angeles County in mid-December, according to County Health data.

The 724 COVID cases confirmed in the city last week were the fewest since 363 cases were reported in the week ending December 19, the last time the weekly case count was below 1,000.

It took just five weeks for the wildly contagious, but milder, Omicron variant to double the number of local cases it took 21 months to reach -- going from 7,658 in mid-December to 15,493 on Sunday.

For the second week in a row, there were two local COVID-related deaths reported in Santa Monica bringing the total number of residents who have died with the virus to 204.

Of the total, eight deaths have been reported since mid-December, with two taking place before the Omicron variant took hold.

County Health officials believe most of those who have recently died are infected with the Omicron variant, and the vast majority suffer from underlying health conditions.

On Monday, health officials announced that the county of more that 10 million had "likely passed the peak of Omicron transmission," noting that the positivity rate and number of hospitalizations are declining.

There were 3,720 people hospitalized with COVID on Sunday, more than 1,000 fewer than the 4,814 hospitalized 10 days earlier, according to County Health data.

Of those, "only a portion of COVID cases are requiring critical care," health officials said.

County officials reported on Monday that 17 percent of patients hospitalized with COVID -- or a total of 632 -- are currently in the ICU.

Some 60 percent of those hospitalized were admitted for unrelated reasons and learned they were infected after being tested during admission, County health officials have said.

The record number of infections during the Omicron surge and the recent decrease in hospitalizations are trends reflected nationwide, according to data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

For the week ending January 15 infections reached a record 800,000 cases nationwide, with the 48,000 Emergency Room visits and nearly 22,000 hospitalizations also marking the highest levels since the pandemic began in March 2020.

But the average of nearly 1,900 daily deaths that week was lower than the rates reported after the Delta variant began spreading widely last spring, according to the CDC.

"Emergence of the Omicron variant in December 2021 led to a substantial increase in COVID-19 cases in the United States," the CDC reported.

However, agency researchers noted that "disease severity appears to be lower than compared with previous high disease-transmission periods."

The six virus-related deaths reported in Santa Monica during the current Omicron surge, for example, are far fewer than the 28 deaths reported in the first two weeks of January 2021.

County Health officials have identified a total 2,659,414 positive cases of COVID-19 to date and a total of 28,963 virus-related deaths.

Of the total number of cases nearly 1.1 million have taken place since the Omicron variant became dominant six weeks ago. During that period, 2,953 deaths have been reported.

Testing results are available for more than 11,067,000 individuals, with 22 percent testing positive.