L.A. County Remains in Tier 2

As of last Monday, L.A. County remains in Tier 2 of the State’s Blueprint. Last week, the County’s adjusted case rate was 3.7 new cases per 100,000 residents.

The County experienced declines in COVID-19 metrics last week, with the seven-day average of new cases dropping below 500 per day. Over the first two weeks in March, cases have decreased 35%, hospitalizations 41% and deaths 60%.

Despite this progress, on Monday, March 22, L.A. County Director of Health Services Dr. Christina Ghaly noted that the rate of decrease in hospitalization in the County has slowed, in line with a slight increase in the County’s rate of transmission. In particular, Dr. Ghaly said that the County’s transmission rate has increased to 0.93, up from 0.87 last week. Based on this increase, Dr. Ghaly said it was not clear whether hospitalizations would continue to decline or increase. The County has also seen an increase in the presence of “variants of concern” in testing samples.

In addition, the L.A. County Department of Public Health relaxed restrictions on several additional sectors:

• Breweries, wineries and craft distilleries that do not provide a meal may open for outdoor service only, with certain restrictions.
• Breweries, wineries, and craft distilleries that serve a bona fide meal can be open for indoor dining operations at 25% of indoor capacity and must follow the same modifications required of restaurants.
• Limited services businesses may now provide indoor operations at 50% capacity, with some modifications. The County defines “Limited service businesses” as those that serve the public but are not typical retail establishments, such as non-school learning centers, bank and credit union branches, check-cashing services, tax preparation, auto repair, auto dealerships and dry cleaners.
• Mental health, support groups and spiritual counseling may now permit in-person participants of up to 12 people to make this type of support more accessible to those in the community. The County still encourages services to be provided remotely when at all possible.
• For office-based worksites, businesses that must open indoors for essential operations that cannot be done remotely must also limit indoor capacity to 50% of maximum occupancy.
• Youth and adult recreational sports are allowed to engage in indoor activities, including training, conditioning, contact practice and competition, if they adhere to State requirements.

The County also aligned its K-12 school guidance with new CDC and state guidance that permits students to be three feet apart, rather than six feet apart.

Vaccinations

As of Friday, March 26, 2021, the County reported administering 3,794,829 total vaccine doses: 2,562,481 first doses and 1,232,348 second doses. This means that more than 12% of eligible County residents have been fully vaccinated. In addition, the County reported that as of March 20, 2021, 65.1% of County residents 65 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 42.4% have received both doses.

The County is expecting to receive 340,000 vaccine doses, a 21% increase over last week. Sixty-five percent (65%) of the vaccines are earmarked for vaccine providers located in vulnerable and hard-hit communities across the County, specifically communities in the lowest quartile of the Healthy Places Index and communities with high COVID-19 case rates.

Vaccine eligibility categories were expanded on March 26, 2021, to include gardeners and landscapers, housekeepers, private child caretakers working at least 20 hours per week, and LA-based flight crews.

On April 1, 2021, all County residents age 50 and over will be eligible for vaccination, and all residents will be eligible beginning April 15, 2021.