Pasadena Reaches Threshold to Move Into Less Restrictive Tier Under State COVID-19 Framework

The Southern California region encompassing Los Angeles County has met the threshold Tuesday required to move to a less-restrictive tier under the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, putting it on track to enter the “red” tier by next week, state and county officials announced Tuesday.

“Should the cases and test positivity rates remain at or below the red tier metrics next week, the County would move to the red tier on March 17,” according to a statement issued by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

City officials have already started talks based on the latest data.

“We are having discussions based on the latest calculations. We will want to respect our business community and give them as much notification as we can after we know when we are moving into the red tier,” said city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian.

Ideally, Derderian said the city would like to align with L.A. County, but the city is not required to go along with the county because it has its own health department.

Before moving from the “purple” tier to the “red” tier, allowing additional reopenings including on-site schooling for students through high school, a region must demonstrate a daily infection rate of 7 new cases per 100,000 people and the county’s test positivity rate must be 8% or lower for two consecutive weeks.

Under the “red” tier, state policy would allow restaurants to open for indoor dining at 25% capacity and retail stores to operate at 50% capacity, officials said. Local health agencies would need to alter their existing public health orders before changes would become effective.

“L.A. County’s adjusted case rate dropped from 7.2 new cases per 100,000 people to 5.2 new cases per 100,000 people,” the statement said. “The test positivity rate dropped from 3.5% to 2.5%.”

L.A. County could receive permission to move ahead even sooner, dependent on vaccine distribution, officials said.

Under new state guidelines, once 2 million vaccinations have been administered in the communities ranked lowest on the Healthy Places Index, the requirement to move into the red tier would be raised from 7 new cases per 100,000 people to 10 new cases.

“This would accelerate L.A. County’s move to the red tier, since the county has two consecutive weeks with case rates below 10 new cases per 100,000 residents,” according to the county statement.

County officials also said they were already making preparations for the transition.

Pasadena public health officials reported five new infections and no new deaths on Tuesday. Since the start of the pandemic, city officials have recorded a total of 10,998 infections and 320 deaths.

Over the prior week, the city saw an average of 11.6 daily infections.

Huntington Hospital officials reported treating 32 COVID-19 patients on Tuesday. Eight of them were being housed in intensive care units.

The L.A. County Department of Public Health reported 1,337 new infections and 70 additional deaths on Tuesday, bringing the county-wide totals to 1,205,276 known cases of COVID-19 and 22,099 associated deaths.

Officials listed 1,119 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the county, with 30% of them being treated in ICUs.

L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer described Tuesday’s milestone as “uplifting.”

“This means that, as we continue to vaccinate more residents, we are slowing transmission, saving lives and closer to ending this pandemic,” she said. “To stay on this trajectory, it is important residents, businesses, and schools follow the safety measures as we together continue to reduce transmission and slow the spread, including wearing masks and physically distancing.”

The California Department of Public Health announced 2,614 additional infections and 171 new deaths on Tuesday, raising the state’s totals to 3,507,266 cases of the virus and 54,395 fatalities.

The statewide average positivity rate over the prior two weeks held steady at 2.2%, according to CDPH data.

As of Tuesday, L.A. County represented 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 41% of the state’s deaths.