LA County officially moved into the low transmission category regarding COVID-19 activity Thursday.
The categorization is set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Low COVID activity is characterized as falling below the threshold of 200 cases per 100,000 residents. LA County's new case rate is 192.8 per 100,000 residents.
Get Southern California news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC LA newsletters.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials did note that the new case rate was probably low due to many people using at-home COVID rapid tests -- many of which are not reported to the county.
The move has no practical effect for residents, since it will not trigger any changes in public health protocols, with most restrictions already lifted.
"Moving into the low community level reflects minimal stress on the hospital care system in L.A. County associated with COVID-19,'' Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer told reporters during an online briefing. "However, viral transmission with a case rate of just below 200 is still high, as it represents about 2,600 new cases a day. Our hope is that we can continue to slow transmission so that we reach a weekly case rate of less than 100, which would drop that daily number of new cases to 1,400.''
