LA County to lift COVID emergency declarations on March 31

By City News Service

which will end the proclamation of a local emergency and the proclamation of a local health emergency on March 31. The board's decision came on the day the statewide COVID emergency declaration ended.

Hahn noted in her motion that the emergency declarations "saved lives and protected the health of county residents." But it noted that thanks to the widespread availability of vaccines, therapeutics and other measures to combat virus spread and illness, "hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 have dramatically reduced."

able tools in combating COVID-19 demonstrate that it is time to evaluate the county's readiness to terminate both the county's proclamation of local emergency and declaration of local health emergency for COVID-19."

Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the county is "no longer at that point of needing the same level of emergency response" due to the virus.

"Although COVID-19 is still present, ... we are at less risk of crippling our health care system and making it become overwhelmed," she said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to end the county's local emergency declarations due to COVID-19 at the end of March while warning that the move doesn't mean the virus no longer poses a threat.

"Yes, COVID-19 is still with us," Supervisor Hilda

Solis said. "No, we don't want to abandon those tools that got us to this place ... but with effective vaccines and testing abundantly available we can move on to the next phase of our response to COVID19."

The board voted unanimously in support of Supervisor Janice Hahn's motion,

"Over the last three years, the county has developed the tools to continue to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 without exclusively relying on the use of the extraordinary powers afforded by the various emergency proclamations and declarations," Hahn's motion states. "The county's sustained preparedness, infrastructure and avail-

Lifting the emergency declarations does not automatically mean that all COVID-related restrictions will immediately go away. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said last week her agency will be reviewing existing health officer orders, noting that some of the requirements

See COVID Page 28