LA County Remains In Purple Tier As COVID-19 Transmission Decreases

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tuesday reported 1,407 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 91 deaths, bringing countywide totals to 1,194,242 cases and 21,554 deaths.

Of the new deaths reported, 26 people were over the age of 80, 38 people were between the ages of 65 and 79, 20 people were between the ages of 50 and 64, six people were between the ages of 30 and 49 and one person was between the ages of 18 and 29.

And while COVID-19 transmission decreases, L.A. County remained Tuesday in the state's most restrictive purple tier with an adjusted case rate of 7.2 new cases per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate of 3.5%. In order to move to the less restrictive red tier, the adjusted case rate must be at or below 7 new cases per 100,000 residents and the test positivity rate must be at or below 3.5% for two consecutive weeks.

"L.A. County is very close to meeting the metric thresholds for the less restrictive red tier in the State's Blueprint for a Safety Economy, which will provide our county with more opportunities to reopen for additional activities," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "Since there is still widespread transmission occurring in our county, we are hoping we do not see increases in the number of daily cases in the upcoming weeks that will pause our recovery journey and cause more hospitalizations."

Public Health also reported that COVID-19 cases among people experiencing homelessness had substantially declined from a peak of 620 weekly cases around the Christmas holiday to 91 new cases reported this week.

To date, there have been 6,927 reported cases among people experiencing homelessness. There are 180 reported COVID-19 deaths among people who were experiencing homelessness — 85 of whom were sheltered, 60 of whom were unsheltered and 18 for whom sheltered status was unknown.

Health officials said there were 1,502 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Tuesday, 32% of whom were being treated in intensive care units.

With testing results available for more than 5,844,000 individuals, the county's overall positivity rate was holding steady at 19%, though the daily test positivity rate had fallen to 2.6%.