Los Angeles could reopen movie theaters and gyms, as well as school campuses for in-person learning, if it drops to 7 cases per 100,000 people.
Improved testing has helped contain the virus.
Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / EFE
If the downward trend in coronavirus cases and test positivity rates continue in Los Angeles, the county may move to the next level of economic reopening next monthCounty health authorities said Wednesday.
Los Angeles Public Health Director, Barbara Ferrer, It said today that numbers in all categories have been on a downward trend over the past six weeks, following an increase in July.
Data Shows LA County Makes Continued Progress against COVID-19; 31 New Deaths and 1,148 New Positive Cases of Confirmed # COVID19 in Los Angeles County.
View https://t.co/uSs6osB7FW for more pic.twitter.com/gkh4vtKLgp– LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) September 17, 2020
The good news would allow the area that has remained the focus of COVID-19 in California to move to a less restrictive level, and take another step in economic reopening.
“If we don’t see an increase in cases and hospitalizations associated with Labor Day activities and we continue to reduce our community transmission rate in the coming weeks, we could enter level 2, which is a less restrictive level, at some point. October “, Ferrer explained at a press conference.
The county already has a low enough seven-day average test positivity rate, around 3.2%, to move to a less restrictive level, But the average number of new cases is still too high, with a current average of 8.1 cases per 100,000 residents.
The state threshold to advance to the next phase is seven cases per 100,000. Reaching for it would allow Los Angeles to reopen movie theaters and gyms, as well as school campuses for in-person learning.
Officials have repeatedly said that they will not consider any more business reopenings in the county until at least the end of September, after determining whether cases and hospitalizations increased after the Labor Day holiday weekend, as they did after Memorial Day and July 4.
Ferrer said that the county is now experiencing the lowest average rate of positivity since the pandemic began.
Los Angeles reached 255,049 positive cases of coronavirus this Wednesday, the last report of new infections was 474.
Deaths related to COVID-19 reached 6,273 deaths, after 47 deaths reported today.
The fight against the pandemic would also be giving results throughout the state, as Governor Gavin Newsom said today at a press conference that “There has been a decrease in the rate of spread and transmission of COVID-19.”
At the state level, the positive rate is 3.6%, the lowest since last May, while hospitalizations fell 22%.
California accumulated 762,963 positive cases of coronavirus to date, as well as 14,615 deaths.
Currently, there are 2,821 Californians hospitalized for COVID-19, of these 875 are in the intensive care unit.
“We are going around the corner to suppress the latest increase,” stressed the governor, warning that the community can be neglected.
