Los Angeles County may soon be able to lift mask requirements and masks would no longer be required at outdoor “mega-events” or outdoor spaces at child care facilities and K-12 schools, Public Health Department officials said in a statement released on Tuesday.
In addition to several other COVID-19 metrics, the announcement comes after a declining number of hospitalized people in the county — with 2,702 hospitalized on Tuesday versus 4,323 patients last week.
“The encouraging case and test positivity trends, hospital admissions for COVID-positive patients in L.A. County have also significantly declined,” read a Public Health Department statement. “For the week ending Feb. 7, the seven-day average of daily hospital admissions decreased by 111 admissions from the prior week to 310 admissions; this represents a 26% decline in county hospital admissions.”
The masking requirement at indoor establishments potentially will be lifted if L.A. County has two consecutive weeks at or below “moderate transmission,” as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Also, for the masking requirements are to be lifted, vaccines must have been available for children under age 5 for eight weeks, with no alarming reports of a new variant of concern threatening vaccine effectiveness.
“Post surge does not mean the pandemic is over or that transmission is low or that there will not be additional unpredictable waves of surges in the future that will require integrated public health measures,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a prepared statement. “Rather, post surge acknowledges that we’re stabilizing with consistent declines from the surge peak, and it realigns our current public health response to meet current mitigation needs.”
The L.A. County Department of Public Health said Tuesday 51 new COVID-19-related deaths and 4,198 cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
All COVID-19 services are free to L.A. County residents and can be accessed by anyone regardless of insurance or immigration status. To find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you, visit VaccinateLACounty.com, or to find a testing site, visit covid19.lacounty.gov/testing.
On Tuesday, the L.A. County Department of Public Health reported the following numbers for the county, as well as the Santa Clarita Valley:
Countywide COVID-19 cases reported in the past 24 hours: 4,198
Total COVID-19 cases in L.A. County: 2,735,688
New deaths related to COVID-19 reported in the past 24 hours: 51
Total COVID-19 deaths in L.A. County: 29,506
Hospitalizations countywide as of Feb. 8 2,702
Hospitalizations at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as of Feb. 6: 38, with 2,097 discharged since
the onset of the pandemic.
COVID-19 cases reported in the Santa Clarita Valley in the past 24 hours: 87, 72 of which came from the city of Santa Clarita
Total COVID-19 cases in the SCV: 70,248
Total COVID-19 deaths in the SCV as of Feb. 8: 412
Santa Clarita Valley % Vaccinated as of Jan. 30: 77.8%
