Los Angeles County’s daily coronavirus case numbers continued to decline Sunday, but health officials remained concerned about the recent detection of more contagious variants in the region and the potential for Super Bowl gatherings to trigger another surge.

The county’s Department of Public Health announced 3,123 new coronavirus cases and 89 related deaths, some of the lowest numbers reported in recent days. The numbers of daily hospitalizations and the positivity rate — a seven-day average — also have declined steadily in the last week. But health officials cautioned that the decline in both categories may be due in part to reporting delays.

To date, more than 1.1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus have been reported among county residents, including 464,000 in the city of Los Angeles. Sunday’s announcement pushes the total number of deaths in the county since the start of the pandemic to nearly 20,000.

Despite the recent declines in coronavirus figures, officials remain concerned because the trends are still higher than pre-surge levels earlier this year, and they continued urging residents to avoid exposing friends, family members and co-workers to the disease.

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