Los Angeles County public health officials continued to report a drop in the number of coronavirus cases on Sunday, raising hopes that more restrictions on companies could be relaxed soon.
New cases and deaths are always lower on weekends because not all laboratories report the results.
Still, the county recorded only 438 new cases and 20 related deaths, according to the public health department, covering several weeks of sustained declines. The county recorded an average of 590 new cases per day in the past week, a 62% drop from two weeks earlier, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker. There were 750 patients with COVID-19 in municipal hospitals on Saturday, a decline of nearly 33% from two weeks earlier.
Officials said that if the downward trend continues, it is possible that LA County will move to the less rigid orange layer of the state’s color-coded reopening plan next month. This would allow bars to reopen outdoors, remove capacity restrictions from stores and increase the limits on restaurants, churches, gyms, museums and cinemas. The county has already moved from the stricter purple layer to the red layer, allowing restaurants, gyms, museums and cinemas to resume operations indoors with limited capacity.
“It’s time to get things moving,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Sunday in an interview for CBS’s “Face the Nation” program. “It is time to start our economy. It’s time to start hugging our loved ones again. “
He sought to distinguish between the more recent relaxation of the rules and a rapid reopening of the economy in May, which was blamed for the subsequent rise in infections in June and July. Unlike then, he said, experts now believe that between half and two-thirds of the LA population have antibodies because they have been exposed to the virus or vaccinated against it.
“So it is a very different context than when the inaugurations took place last July or when the inaugurations did not take place in December, but we have still seen this virus burn our city,” said Garcetti. “This is a very, very optimistic moment.”
Levels are assigned based on three factors: COVID-19 case rates, the rate of positive test results, and a health equity metric designed to ensure that the rate of positive test in poorer communities is not significantly higher than the general county number.
Counties need to record two consecutive weeks of qualification data to advance to a less restrictive level and must remain at one level for at least three weeks before moving on again.
To move from red to orange, a county must have an adjusted coronavirus case rate of 3.9 or less new cases per 100,000 people each day, a test positivity rate of less than 5% and a metric of health equity of less than 5.3%.
According to the most recent data released on Tuesday, LA County checked the health equity and positivity rate boxes, but its calculated case rate – 4.1 – was still a little high. The county still needs two weeks, at best, to move forward potentially.
Orange County is in the same boat, with two qualifying metrics, but an adjusted case rate of exactly 4.0. The county also continued to report falls, recording 113 cases of the virus and 45 deaths on Sunday; hospitalizations have dropped by about 35% in the past two weeks.
The reopening was made easier after state officials overhauled the roadmap by reaching the goal of administering 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in California’s most disadvantaged communities, reducing the case rate benchmarks that counties must meet to pass levels. . As soon as the state distributes 4 million doses in these areas, the criteria will be even more flexible.
Although the pace of inoculations has increased in recent weeks, officials say the lack of vaccine remains the main obstacle. Remaining consultations at LA County-administered vaccination sites will be limited to second doses this week due to low supplies, the public health department said on Sunday.
Garcetti said the city is capable of firing twice as many shots as it currently administers. “Give us more, we will put you in your arms,” he said.
Health officials have asked people to continue to follow health guidelines, such as masking, detachment and frequent hand washing until the vaccine can be distributed more widely, noting that just because restrictions have been loosened on some activities does not mean they are free of risks.
Times staff writer Luke Money contributed to this report.