After three years, Los Angeles County’s COVID emergency will end on March 31. Here’s what is changing in L.A. County.
Rent protections expire
The county Board of Supervisors rejected a proposal on Tuesday intended to soften the blow for renters who could soon face eviction. L.A. County’s COVID-19 emergency tenant regulations have given low-income tenants protections in eviction court if they can’t pay rent on time due to economic harms brought on by the pandemic. But those tenants will have to pay their April rent on time — or face eviction.
Health changes
The move triggers a review of local public health officer orders which were put in place under the emergency authorization. The L.A. County Department of Public Health, Health Services and the Department of Social Services must complete the review by the end of March. The departments will report back to the board with a list of orders still in play, such as mobile vaccine vans.
From a patient perspective, you won’t see drastic changes after the COVID health emergency expires in L.A. County. California’s state COVID emergency ended February 28, and the federal emergencies are still in play until May 11. Instead, it marks a shift toward treating COVID like other communicable diseases and moving intervention measures to individuals and their healthcare providers.
Vaccines will remain widely available and COVID testing will be provided at public health sites. Public Health will also “continue to use its long standing non-emergency state law communicable disease control authority to take measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” according to a statement by the…
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