UPDATE: JANUARY 25, 2021, 2:15 P.M. – At a briefing on Monday afternoon, Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis confirmed that Los Angeles County intends to largely align with state reopening guidelines. That means, with the regional stay-at-home order lifted, the county will allow activity permitted for counties in the purple tier–including outdoor dining–to resume.
As of today, some additional activities will be permitted, including outdoor fitness and recreation activities, and outdoor private gatherings of multiple households.
A new Los Angeles County Health Officer Order will be issued on Friday, which will allow restaurants to reopen for outdoor dining and will roll back the nighttime hour restrictions which were put into place.
Los Angeles County announced 267 new COVID-19-related deaths Saturday, pushing the county’s coronavirus death toll past 15,000. As of Saturday, 15,162.
But thankfully, that hasn t happened so far. No hospital in L.A. has gotten there, said Cathy Chidester, director of the L.A. County Emergency Management Services Agency.
One reason is that there s been a slight decline in the number of people in area hospitals. Another reason: direct coordination with the state health department. In December, we were so taken off guard by the sheer number of patients that were coming in, I think the mindset was that the hospitals would be able to handle this on their own, Chidester said.
But it soon became clear the surge of COVID-19 patients was growing. Hospital administrators were asking the county for help as they began shifting overflow patients into operating recovery rooms and emergency rooms, and in at least one case a gift shop.
There is growing concern that Los Angeles County residents won’t be fully inoculated against COVID-19 until next year unless supplies of approved vaccines get a major boost.
L.A. and the rest of the nation are struggling to get enough vaccine to meet swelling demand, especially after California allowed people 65 and older to gain access to the inoculations. But while many are clamoring for the vaccine, officials say they are getting only a fraction of what they need.
Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said that if weekly vaccine shipments were to increase to 500,000 doses, the county could potentially immunize 75% of its adult population by midsummer.