Los Angeles County reports 16,000 new COVID-19 cases in one day

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles County reported more than 16,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the highest one-day total seen in a year as the highly-contagious omicron variant takes hold throughout the country.

The 16,510 COVID-19 new cases doubles the number from earlier this week.
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The county is also reporting 25 new deaths from the virus and state figures show 1,251 people hospitalized in the county, an increase of nearly 200 from Tuesday.

The county previously hit more than 16,000 cases in December 2020, and then jumped over 21,000 in January 2021, a devastating winter surge that came before the vaccine was widely available.

With the vaccine now available, however, the deaths figure is sharply lower than that previous winter surge, when the county was routinely reporting more than 200 deaths a day throughout December and January.
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Over the past week, the county's test positivity rate has more than doubled from 8.7% to 17.6% as lines have once again gotten long in front of public testing sites, and as stores report a shortage of at-home testing kits.

DEVELOPING: This story will be updated.