Supervisors Vote to End LA County COVID Emergency March 31

LOS ANGELES —The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Feb. 28 voted unanimously to end the County’s COVID-19 emergency declarations on March 31, 2023.

The proposal, authored by Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Janice Hahn and co-authored by Supervisor Kathryn Barger, ends both the county’s proclamation of local emergency and declaration of local health emergency for COVID-19 which have been in place since March 2020. They gave the county broad powers to respond to the COVID -19 crisis including the authority to implement masking rules, deploy county employees as disaster service workers, temporarily enact countywide tenant protections, stand up Project Roomkey sites in empty motels and fast-track outdoor dining policies.

Even after the emergency proclamations are terminated, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health will continue to monitor COVID-19, inform the board and the public about COVID-19 in the county, and use its existing non-emergency authority to manage the virus.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the statewide COVID-19 emergency declaration would end today, Feb.28, while President Biden announced he intends to end the nation’s public health emergency this May.