Los Angeles County has made progress on “key” coronavirus recovery metrics since the mid-July case surge, public health officials said Wednesday. 

Currently, L.A.County is in the most restrictive Tier 1 of the state “Roadmap to Recovery” with daily COVID-19 cases and positivity rates — the two metrics measured  — declining in the past weeks, according to Dr. Barbara Ferrer director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. 

As of Wednesday, the 7-day average of new infections is 7 cases per 100,000 residents and a 2.9 percent 7-day positivity rate, according to Ferrer. 

Both of those numbers meet the threshold for the next tier of reopening, but most hold for two weeks to qualify for the next stage, according to Public Health. 

“We qualify by meeting the metric in Tier 2 for our daily case rate and for Tier 3 for our positivity rate,” said Ferrer. “But if you look on the state’s dashboard, you’ll see that L.A. County remains in Tier 1 and this is because we cannot move to Tier 2 until we sustain these numbers that you’re seeing here, or the numbers continue to decline for at least two consecutive weeks. 

Ferrer cautioned that although the trend of lower cases is promising, that the county would be carefully watching for a troublesome increase in cases reported last week.

“We had four days where we were above a thousand cases each day,” said Ferrer. “So we’re not sure that we’ll have another week where our daily case rate is at or below seven new cases per hundred thousand residents, but we are heartened that L.A. County has met the thresholds that allow us to see our progress and in the future move to Tier 2, we will continue to closely monitor our data so that we can understand how to best effectively slow the spread of COVID-19.”

 1,265 additional Los Angeles County coronavirus cases have been reported Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total to 263,333, according to Ferrer. 

There are currently 779 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, with 28 percent of those patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), according to the department.

Testing results are available for 2,500,000 individuals as of Wednesday, with a positivity rate of 9 percent, according to public health officials.

31 additional deaths have been reported within the county Wednesday, for a total of 6,423 recorded people who have died due to coronavirus in Los Angeles County since March.

See Related: California Business Reopening List By Coronavirus Criteria Tiers

As of Wednesday, a total of 5,785 cumulative cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the Santa Clarita Valley since testing began in March. These include:

• 3,374 in the City of Santa Clarita*
• 132 in the unincorporated areas of Canyon Country
• 1,947 in Castaic*
• 27 in the unincorporated areas of Saugus
• 162 in Stevenson Ranch
• 43 in the unincorporated areas of Valencia
• 76 in the unincorporated areas of Val Verde
• Seven in the unincorporated areas of Newhall
• Eight in the unincorporated areas of Bouquet Canyon
• One in the unincorporated areas of Saugus/Canyon Country
• Seven in unincorporated Sand Canyon

*As of Tuesday, Sept. 22, officials had recorded 1,335 cumulative cases among prisoners at the North County Correctional Facility, and 498 at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center. Those cases are distributed between both the City of Santa Clarita and Castaic totals.

Additionally, 69 cumulative cases have been confirmed in nearby Acton as well as 26 in Agua Dulce.

An analysis of available data indicates that as of Tuesday, Sept. 22, approximately 31.9 percent of all cumulative cases in and around the Santa Clarita Valley can be attributed to the inmate population at the North County Correctional Facility and the Pitchess Detention Center.

As of Wednesday, Sept, 23, Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital has conducted 8,043 COVID-19 tests. Of those, 869 have tested positive, and 2 tests are still pending with Henry Mayo, according to Patrick Moody, spokesperson for the hospital.

There are 10 patients in the hospital as of Wednesday, while 253 patients have been discharged since the hospital’s first case was reported in March, according to Moody.

See All Coronavirus Coverage: Coronavirus Coverage – COVID-19 Map

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