Watch CBS News

LA County Lifting More COVID Restrictions, Nears 7K Deaths

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Los Angeles County health officials Wednesday said that while the county has seen major drops in the number of newly confirmed coronavirus cases over the past three months, there have been "concerning" upticks in recent weeks — delaying a move into a less-restrictive tier.

From August through the start of September, the county was averaging fewer than 800 new coronavirus cases per day.

"However, since the middle of September, we started to see the daily number of cases creep up, and this is a cause for some worry," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "Last week, the average number of cases was about 1,000 cases per day."

On Wednesday, the county reported 510 new cases and 33 deaths, bringing countywide totals to 290,486 cases and 6,944 deaths.

Health officials said the number of new cases was artificially low due to continued technical problems with the state's reporting system.

RELATED: 4 LA County Schools Cleared To Offer In-Person Classes For Youngest Students

But, despite concerns over a recent spike and the county's continued purple tier status, health officials announced that they would be lifting additional restrictions on business operations this week.

"I hope this provides much-needed relief and respite for residents who are looking for activities outside their homes," County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said. "These updates will also bring more employees back to work."

Barger said the county plans to have a revised health order in place by Friday that will remove the one-day advance reservation requirement for wineries and craft breweries; remove the requirement that customers at wineries must purchase food with alcohol; and authorize family entertainment centers to reopen outdoors.

There were 758 people hospitalized Wednesday due to the virus, 28% of whom were being treated in intensive care units. With testing results available for more than 2,913,000 people, the overall positivity rate was 9%.

(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.