LA School Reopenings Imperiled As U.K. Coronavirus Strain Spreads

LOS ANGELES, CA — Just days after county health officials floated the idea of a quick reopening of schools, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner slammed the door shut on such talk. On Monday, he warned that until teachers are vaccinated and infection rates go down, school will remain online. He said the 2021-22 school-year is likely to be extended as a result.

In a contentious break with county and state officials, Beutner criticized the county's waiver process for reopening schools and implied that the state's new threshold for reopening schools was nonsensical.

In fact, infection rates are dropping dramatically in Los Angeles, but experts don't expect that to last. The U.K variant of the coronavirus known as B.1.1.7 is spreading rapidly in Southern California. The new strain is much more contagious, and, officials suspect, it may be more virulent. It's one of two new strains spreading in the community currently, and both have the potential to stymie plans for reopening. Los Angeles County recorded a second case of the new variant.

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“The question is not whether this strain will become dominant, but how long it will take, and what effect it will have on our epidemic trajectory, given its increased transmissibility,” said Natasha Martin, associate professor in the UC San Diego Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Healthwarned health officials, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The question is not whether this strain will become dominant, but how long it will take, and what effect it will have on our epidemic trajectory, given its increased transmissibility."

Considered to be 50 to 70 percent more transmissible, the U.K. strain of the coronavirus is also suspected to be more contagious. Last month, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed the variant was 30 percent more likely to be fatal. The variant is taking root in Southern California amid a frantic effort to wrestle the outbreak into submission with mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics. However, the pace of vaccinations continues to lag due supply constraints.

Los Angeles County officials went on the defensive Monday, contending Los Angeles County is apace with other large jurisdictions grappling with the vaccine rollout.

"Although our doses are limited, we have immunized so many amongst the most vulnerable of our communities," county Supervisor Hilda Solis said. "In fact, Los Angeles County has been able to vaccinate a higher percentage of our population than Cook County (Illinois) and Harris County (Texas), which are the second and third more populous counties in America, right after Los Angeles County."

According to Solus, 7.9 percent of Los Angeles County residents had already received their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccination as of late last month with just about 20 percent of the region's vaccine supply unadministered. However, because the vaccines require two shots, the bulk of the weekly doses must be given out as booster shots for people who already received their first dose. That slows down the pace of vaccinations going forward, health officials acknowledged.

The county has received just shy of a million shots and has administered 790,902 of them.

According to county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, the county as of last week had received 991,375 doses of the vaccination, and 790,902 shots had been administered.

"L.A. County has administered more doses to date than any other large county or large city in the United States, and we have the highest percent administration rate," Ferrer said. "The biggest challenge remains not having enough vaccine for all of those eligible to be vaccinated."

Ferrer said she hopes that the production of new vaccines will lead to increased supplies by spring.

As health officials and hospitals enjoy a respite from the sheer volume of patients that overburdened ICUs less than a month ago, many view it as the calm before the storm.

The average number of daily new cases reported by the county has dropped by 67% since the start of the year, but deaths are down 33 percent over the last month, but they are still up 1,400 percent since December.

"This is a tragedy that we've yet to turn around," said Ferrer.

Los Angeles County reported another 85 deaths Monday and 4,223 new cases. There were 5,259 people hospitalized in the county Monday with about 1,415 in intensive care. Roughly 1 in a 1,000 Californians have died from the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. As new variants emerge and take root, there is a concern that existing vaccines will be less effective against the new strains.

Health officials urged residents to be as vigilant as ever even though businesses such as salons and restaurants are reopening.

"It is not time to relax. It is ... time to remain super-vigilant against this deadly virus and continue to stay home as much as possible," Ferrer said. "It is only by the actions that each business and each individual in L.A. County takes that we're going to see this continued reduction in transmission."

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.