Trends could soon help lift mask mandates
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 K-12 daycare centers and schools, officials said. from the public health department in a statement released Tuesday.
In addition to several other COVID-19 measures, the announcement comes after a drop in the number of people hospitalized in the county – with 2,702 hospitalized on Tuesday compared to 4,323 patients last week.
“Encouraging trends in cases and test positivity, hospital admissions for COVID-positive patients in LA County have also declined significantly,” read a statement from the Department of Public Health. “For the week ending February 7, the seven-day average of daily hospital admissions decreased by 111 admissions from the previous week to 310 admissions; this represents a 26% drop in county hospital admissions.
The indoor facility masking requirement will potentially be waived if LA County has two consecutive weeks at or below “moderate transmission,” as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Additionally, for masking requirements to be waived, vaccines must have been available to children under 5 for eight weeks, with no alarming reports of a concerning new variant threatening vaccine efficacy.
“After the surge does not mean the pandemic is over or transmission is low or that there will not be unpredictable additional waves of surges in the future that will require integrated public health measures,” the statement said. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer in a prepared statement. “Instead, post-surge recognizes that we are stabilizing with steady declines from peak surge, and it realigns our current public health response to meet current mitigation needs.”
The LA County Public Health Department said Tuesday that 51 new COVID-19 deaths and 4,198 cases had been reported in the past 24 hours.
All COVID-19 services are free to LA County residents and available to everyone, 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 LA 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 past 24 hours: 4,198
Total COVID-19 cases in LA County: 2,735,688
New COVID-19 deaths reported in past 24 hours: 51
Total COVID-19 deaths in LA County: 29,506
Hospitalizations countywide as of Feb. 8 2,702
Hospitalizations at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as of February 6: 38, with 2,097 discharges since
the start of the pandemic.
COVID-19 cases reported in the Santa Clarita Valley in the past 24 hours: 87, of which 72 were from the city of Santa Clarita
Total COVID-19 cases in SCV: 70,248
Total COVID-19 deaths in the SCV as of February 8: 412
Santa Clarita Valley % vaccinated as of January 30: 77.8%
