Los Angeles County Public Health Closely Monitoring Additional COVID Post-Surge

As of June 24, LA County remained at the medium community level on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC COVID-19 Community Level framework. The CDC Community Level framework contains three elements: the weekly cumulative case rate per 100,000 people, and two hospital metrics, the seven-day cumulative rate of COVID-19 hospital admissions, and the percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients.

This medium level is based on a very high case rate of 307 cases per 100,000 residents, well above the CDC’s 200 cases per 100,000 threshold for the low community level.

The county’s hospital admission rate is at 7.3 per 100,000 people, unchanged from the week prior. The percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID patients is at 3.6%, slightly up from 3.5% last week. If the county reaches 10 for either of these two metrics, it will move into the “high” community level.

If the county continues its current rate of increase over the coming weeks, it may reach the COVID-19 hospital admission rate of 10 per 100,000 people threshold in mid-July, which is the high community level. However, the future hospitalization trend cannot be predicted with certainty. 

If the county does move into the high level and remain there for two consecutive weeks, Public Health will implement a universal indoor masking requirement for everyone age 2 and older in LA County as a safety measure recommended by the CDC. If it were to be implemented, it would remain in effect until the county returns to the medium level for two consecutive weeks.

Details: http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov