LA Taps The Brakes On Reopening As State Lifts Restrictions

LOS ANGELES, CA — The state may allow Los Angeles County to further reopen, but local health officials aren't ready to do that just yet.

Los Angeles County qualified for the much-less restrictive orange tier of the state's reopening blueprint Tuesday. The announcement came as something of a surprise, and county health officials tapped the brakes. The county will wait five full days until Monday before allowing increased capacity at retail stores, movie theaters, restaurants and other attractions such as the reopening of outdoor bars that don't serve food.

The state guidelines require counties to remain in their existing tier for at least three weeks before they can move to a less restrictive tier, but in moving Los Angeles to the Orange tier as early as Wednesday, the state waived the requirement. Los Angeles will have been in the red tier for three weeks as of Friday. County officials decided to wait until 12:01 a.m. Monday to allow for orange tier reopenings.

"This allows the county to follow the state guidelines and wait until we've completed three weeks in the red tier to be sure that our case numbers do not rise this third week since our earlier reopenings," County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.

Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to drop in Los Angeles paving the way for reopenings. But one critical statistic has been trending in the wrong direction for two weeks. The county's transmission rate has been going up, and new cases will soon follow if the trend isn't reversed.

Scientists in Los Angeles will also begin testing the real-world effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccines using the medical community as subjects since doctors and nurses were among the first in the state to be vaccinated. Elsewhere around the country, states have begun reporting minute "breakthrough cases" or instances of vaccinated people becoming infected with the coronavirus. UCLA received a $4.9 million grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study the effectiveness of COVID- 19 vaccines among health care workers. Given the prevalence of new variants of the coronavirus, the local study may help determine how effective the current vaccines are against the new COVID-19 variants.

The variants remain a concern as Southern California rapidly restarts the economy. The variants originating in California and the united Kingdom are now the dominant variants in Los Angeles County. Unlike Los Angeles, Orange County plans to implement orange-tier guidelines on Wednesday.

Moving to the orange tier requires a county to have an average daily rate of new COVID infections of 3.9 per 100,000 residents, along with a testing- positivity rate of 4.9% or less, and maintain those levels for two consecutive weeks.

According to weekly figures released by the state Tuesday, Los Angeles had a new case rate of 3.1 per 100,000 residents, and a testing-positivity rate of 1.5%. Both numbers were down from last week, when the county's case rate was 3.7 per 100,000 residents, and the testing-positivity rate of 1.8%.

Ferrer said a revised Health Officer Order would be posted on Friday so business owners will be aware of all the new guidelines and have the weekend to adjust their operations accordingly. While the county is largely aligning with state guidelines for the orange tier, it will have some stricter requirements.

Most notably, bars will be limited to outdoor table service only, operating only from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and a required 8-foot distance between outdoor tables. Although state guidelines allow a lifting of all capacity restrictions on retail establishments in the orange tier, Los Angeles County will impose a 75% limit for grocery stores and other retail operations, while "strongly" recommending they remain at 50% capacity until April 15 to all time for more workers to get vaccinated.

The county will also raise the capacity limit from 25% to 50% for movie theaters, churches, museums, zoos, aquariums and restaurants. Fitness center capacity will be increased from 10% to 25%. Cardrooms and family entertainment centers can resume indoor operations at 25% capacity.

The move also allows Dodger Stadium to increase fan capacity to 33%, up from the current 20%, while theme parks can expand capacity to 25%, up from 15%.

Breweries and wineries will be able to offer indoor service at 25% capacity. Breweries, wineries and bars will all be allowed to turn on their television sets outdoors, but live entertainment remains prohibited.

It was unclear if the county will continue to ban restaurants from turning on their television sets -- a requirement imposed to prevent gatherings of sports fans.

Despite the move to the orange tier, health officials are continuing to preach vigilance, warning that cases have been rising in other states and countries. They said the continued emergence of COVID-19 variants that can spread more easily from person to person could lead to another surge in cases.

County officials also fear that upcoming spring break activities -- along with the Easter and Passover holidays -- could prompt gatherings that threaten to quickly spread the virus.

"COVID-19 cases are rising in 27 states, and the U.S. seven-day average saw a 10% increase in cases compared to the prior seven-day period," Ferrer said. "While L.A. County has yet to experience such increases, this week is critical as we are now two weeks out from when we moved into the red tier and reopened several sectors. We're also in the height of spring vacations and we're in the height of many of our spring holidays."

Vaccine eligibility will expand Thursday to all residents aged 50 and over, but with vaccine supplies still relatively limited, getting an appointment could prove difficult. The city of Los Angeles' appointment system through Carbon Health was accepting appointment slots for the 50-and-over group, but the state's MyTurn website will not offer such appointments until Wednesday, Farrer said.

Eligibility will expand to everyone aged 16 and up on April 15.

The county this week was set to receive its largest weekly allotment of vaccine to date -- 338,100 doses -- and tens of thousands more doses will be sent directly to other local vaccination providers, such as pharmacies and health care centers.

Noting that case totals are still low due to reporting delays from the weekend and Cesar Chavez holiday, the county on Monday reported 26 new COVID-19 deaths, lifting the countywide total from throughout the pandemic to 23,110.

The county also announced 386 new infections, raising the cumulative number since the pandemic began to 1,218,958.

According to state figures, there were 638 people hospitalized in the county due to COVID-19, with 158 people in intensive care. That's down slightly from Monday, when 649 people were hospitalized.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.