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LA County Meets Metrics To Move Tiers, Must Hold Steady For 2 Consecutive Weeks Before Being Allowed To Loosen Restrictions

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tuesday reported 810 newly confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and 40 new deaths, bringing countywide totals to 262,133 cases and 6,401 deaths.

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People walk by a sign at The Grove retail and entertainment complex on September 22, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)

Of the 40 new deaths reported, 15 people who died were over the age of 80, 12 were between the ages of 65 and 79, seven were between the ages of 50 and 64, four were between the ages of 30 and 49 and one was between the ages of 18 and 29. Twenty-seven of those who died had underlying health conditions.

Health officials also reported that L.A. County has met the metric thresholds to move up to the red tier from purple — though the data must hold for two consecutive weeks before being allowed to loosen local restrictions on businesses — and that they would be working with the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to determine when and how nail salons can resume modified indoor operations, as allowed by the state.

"Public Health is heartened that Los Angeles County has met the thresholds that may allow us in the near future to move into Tier 2 of California's Blueprint for a Safer Economy," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "We plan to closely monitor our data to understand how effectively we are slowing the spread of COVID-19 after the Labor Day holiday and the impact of reopening schools for high need students and reopening hair salons for indoor operations."

Along with cases and deaths, the health department was continuing to monitor the number of daily hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients, which continued to drop Tuesday to a total of 745 people hospitalized, with 28% being treated in intensive care units.

"Even in the last month, since the end of August, there has been a significant decrease from an average of 1,200 daily hospitalizations to the average this past week of under 800 hospitalizations per day," the department said in a release. "We are hoping that we do not see an increase in the number of daily hospitalizations in the upcoming weeks associated with activities that occurred over the Labor Day holiday."

Health officials also continued to urge people to practice social distancing and wear a face covering whenever outside the home and around others, wash their hands frequently, get tested if they are experiencing symptoms, isolate if they have the virus and quarantine if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive.

With testing results available for more than 2,563,000 people, the county's overall positivity rate was 9%.

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