Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced on March 2 that the county remains in the most restrictive purple tier in the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

To move into the less restrictive red tier that allows for additional re]openings, L.A. County’s daily case rate must be at or below seven new cases per 100,000 people and the county’s test positivity rate must be at or below 8%. On March 2, updated numbers were released and L.A. County’s adjusted case rate is 7.2 new cases per 100,000 people and the test positivity rate is 3.5%. If Los Angeles county’s adjusted case rate drops to seven new cases per 100,000 people next week, the county must continue to show a case rate of seven new cases per 100,000 people or less for two consecutive weeks before it can move into the red tier and be eligible for additional re-openings, including on-site learning for the seventh through 12th grades.

“L.A. County is very close to meeting the metric thresholds for the less restrictive red tier in the state’s Blueprint for a Safety Economy, which will provide our county with more opportunities to reopen for additional activities,” Los Angeles County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said. “Since there is still widespread transmission occurring in our county, we are hoping we do not see increases in the number of daily cases in the upcoming weeks that will pause our recovery journey and cause more hospitalizations. With an increase in the circulation of variants, we need to ask our residents, workers and businesses to continue following the safety measures and implement health officer order directives, including wearing a mask and physically distancing from others not in your household to prevent spread.”

County health officials also announced progress in other areas. The number of COVID-19 cases among people experiencing homelessness has substantially declined from the peak of 620 weekly cases reported around Christmas to 91 new cases reported this week. The number includes 63 cases from previous weeks that were newly identified and were included in the new case totals. To date, the public health department has identified 6,927 cases among people experiencing homelessness, and 180 people who were experiencing homelessness have passed away from COVID-19.

Health care workers, residents and staff at long-term care facilities, people 65 or older, education and childcare workers, food and agriculture workers, and emergency service workers and law enforcement employees are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines.

For information, visit vaccinatelacounty.com and publichealth.lacounty.gov.