By Jorge Casuso

July 12, 2022 -- After a dramatic surge, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases plummeted in Santa Monica last week, according to LA County Health data released Monday.

Cases in the beach city of some 93,000 fell from 556 the previous week to 313, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 21,632.

There has been an average of 392 weekly cases in Santa Monica since mid-May, according to an analysis of County Health data.

There was one virus-related death reported for the third week in a row, bringing the total number to 251, according to County data.

The drop in cases last week bucks a countywide trend that saw the number of new cases increase from 4,960 two weeks ago to 5,706.

The increase is due to the rapid spread of two super-contagious Omicron subvariants -- BA.4 and BA.5 -- which are more resistant to vaccines and can infect those who have had the virus, experts said.

While LA County remains at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) designated COVID-19 Community Level of Medium, that could quickly change, health officials warn.

Over the past two weeks, the average daily number of COVID-positive patients in County hospitals has jumped by 40 percent -- from 741 to 1,035.

As of Monday, the County was at 8.8 new admissions per 100,000 people, just below the 10 new admissions that would push it into the High Community Level.

"The county is very likely to move into High later this week as the rate of daily new (hospital) admissions continues to increase," Health officials said in a press release.

"Should the county remain in the High Community Level designation for two consecutive weeks, universal indoor masking, in alignment with the CDC, would be implemented across LA County."

Deaths, which typically take about two weeks to report, are also rising -- from a daily average of eight deaths two weeks ago to 14 last week.

To date, Public Health has reported 3,183,359 positive cases of COVID-19 across the County of more than 10 million. There have been 32,464 virus-related deaths.