As the winter coronavirus surge calms down, hospitalizations in Los Angeles County — which were previously rising at exponential levels just weeks ago — have declined significantly, leading to what officials hope is the tail end of the omicron surge.
In the middle of January, Covid-related hospitalizations across LA County stood at just over 4,800, but as of Tuesday, Feb. 22, the number of Covid-positive hospital patients is 1,276, the county reported.
In addition to the lowered number of coronavirus hospitalizations, the county also reported 1,188 new Covid cases, which is less than half of the positive case number reported a week ago on Wednesday, Feb. 16, which had 3,348 positive cases.
The county also reported 36 new coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, down from 102 reported on Feb. 16. The daily positivity rate now sits at 1.9%.
The sharp decrease in hospitalizations influenced the county’s decision last week to discontinue the mask-wearing requirement for outdoor mega-events and outdoor spaces in schools, as the Asian Journal reported last week.
The continuing uptick of residents getting vaccinated and booster shots are also contributing to the decrease in coronavirus metrics, LA County Public Health reported. Of the county’s 10.3 million residents, about 78% have had at least one vaccine dose, 70% are fully vaccinated, and 34% have received a booster shot.
According to LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, vaccinated people may soon be able to forgo mask-wearing, an update to the Health Officer Order that could take effect as early as this Friday, Feb. 25.
In a tweet, Hahn said on Tuesday that LA Public Health may start “allowing vaccinated people to take off their masks indoors at places that check for proof of vaccination. This puts us significantly closer to aligning with the state.” (LA County Public Health has not responded to Hahn’s tweet, as of press time.)
If things go according to Hahn’s statement, the change would be the county’s most significant easing of its mask mandate; even though the state lifted the indoor mask mandate last week, LA County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said that it would be upholding the mandate until Covid numbers remained low.
As previously reported in the Asian Journal, Ferrer said that the mask mandate would be dropped as soon as the county reached a seven-day cumulative infection rate of less than 50 positive cases per 100,000 residents; as of Monday, Feb. 21, the county’s rate was 133 per 100,000 residents.
The county continues the downward trend, the indoor mask mandate would be lifted by March 30, Ferrer said last week.
