Los Angeles County public health officials said Tuesday that an uptick in coronavirus cases linked to social gatherings and workplace outbreaks is largely keeping the area from moving out of the state’s most restrictive tier for reopening.
While officials remain hopeful the county will be able to progress in California’s reopening plan in the coming weeks, the area is still firmly in Tier 1, or the purple zone — one of only 10 counties in the state still considered to have a widespread risk of community transmission.
Though the county’s positivity rate has dropped to 3.7%, it has been hindered by a high number of coronavirus cases. The metric has been driven largely by outbreaks from personal gatherings, Public Health Directors Barbara Ferrer said during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
“The only way we get to Tier 2 is to really double down,” Ferrer said about the county’s goal to move to the next tier. “We’re going to have to get used to living our lives with a different set of rules.”
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