LA County Continues to See Declines in COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations and Deaths
On April 6, 2021, Governor Newsom announced that the state will eliminate the Blueprint tiers and reopen its economy on June 15. More information here. For the time being, L.A. County remains in Tier 3 of the State’s Blueprint.
As of April 6, 2021, L.A. County's adjusted case rate remained at 3.1 new cases per 100,000 people. The test positivity rate dropped from 1.5% to 1.4%, and in areas with the fewest health affirming resources, L.A. County’s test positivity rate dropped from 2.1% to 1.9%. However, the County has also seen an increase in “variants of concern” such as the U.K. variant, and also recently identified the first local cases of the Brazil (P.1) and South African variants.
In addition, in a presentation on April 5, 2021, the L.A. County Department of Health Services reported that the County’s estimated transmission rate (R) is down slightly, to 0.92, from 0.95 last week, suggesting that about 0.08% of County residents, or about 1 in 1,300, are currently infected and infectious to others. The prior week, this estimate was 1 in 940.
The County also made changes to its travel advisory, in line with recent CDC guidance. Asymptomatic and fully vaccinated individuals no longer need to quarantine or test upon arrival in the county.
Vaccinations
As of Friday, April 9, 2021, the County reported administering over 5,192,172 total doses, including 3,339,374 first doses and 1,852,798 second doses.
This week, the L.A. County Department of Public Health expects to receive approximately 323,000 vaccine doses—a decrease of 74,000 doses from last week due to a reduced supply of Johnson & Johnson vaccine. This allocation includes approximately 165,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 139,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, and 20,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
L.A. County is scheduled to make vaccines available to all residents (over age 16) beginning this Thursday, April 15, 2021. However, appointments have been made available for all individuals over age 16 beginning this Tuesday, April 13, on the City’s vaccination appointment system.