By Jorge Casuso

May 31, 2022 -- Cornonavirus cases in Santa Monica continued rising last week, reaching the highest level in four months with no new virus-related deaths reported.

According to LA County Health data, there were 506 cases confirmed last week, up from 463 the previous week, bringing the total number of cases among residents to 19,382.

Several "settings" also saw a small outbreaks, including the Public Safety Facility, with 10, and Olympic High School, where seven staff members and 20 students were infected.

Nine employees at the Apple store on the Promenade tested positive, seven at California Edison and six at Pier Burger, according to the data.

The County does not indicate whether those who test positive at local settings are Santa Monica residents.

The zero coronavirus-related deaths come after two deaths were reported the previous week and three residents died with the virus two weeks ago.

A total of 246 Santa Monica residents have died since the virus took hold in March 2020 in the beach city of some 93,000. Virus-related deaths typically take two weeks to confirm, health officials have said.

Santa Monica's recent surge reflects a national and Countywide trend driven by the highly contagious Omicron BA.2 lineage and sub-lineages, which is milder and less deadly than previous variants. It is also more resistant to vaccines.

Santa Monica has one of the highest vaccination rates in the County, with 93 percent of the residents over five years of age having received at least one shot as of Friday.

There were 21 deaths reported in the County of more than 10 million over the past four days. In cases where the County broke down the reported deaths, all had serious underlying health conditions.

There are currently 486 patients with COVID hospitalized in the County, up from 253 a month ago. There are 19,500 licensed hospital beds.

To date, there have been 2,974,197 confirmed cases in the County and 32,129 virus-related deaths, according to County officials.