In California, vaccinations are a priority, but testing matters

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles and San Francisco were able to enter California’s least restrictive Coronavirus tier Thursday even though they have more infections per capita than some other populous counties.

The reason is they continue to test for the virus more aggressively than other places even as the statewide emphasis is on vaccinations.

Under California’s four-tier, colored coded system for resuming business operations and other activities, if a county tests more it gets rewarded by having its virus case rate adjusted down. The lower the case rate, the fewer the restrictions.

So, even though neighboring Orange County has a lower per capita case rate and San Bernardino County has a similar one, Los Angeles moved to the lowest tier — yellow — this week because its rate was adjusted for doing more testing while the other two counties stayed orange, one tier higher.

The same dynamic played out in the San Francisco Bay Area. Marin County had a lower per capita number of infections than San Francisco but stayed one tier higher because it didn’t test as much.

Dr. Clayton Chau, health officer for Orange County’s 3.2 million residents, questioned the state’s decision to allow counties that conduct more testing to allow more business activity.

“I’ve always thought the adjusted rate gave people a false sense of safety,” Chau said in an email.

The latest state data shows Los Angeles County averaged 655 tests daily per 100,000 residents and San Francisco did 586. The corresponding numbers in Orange and San Bernardino were 288 and 286, respectively, while Marin was 410.

To reach the lowest tier, which is yellow, a county must have less than 2 new confirmed cases per 100,000 people each day. Los Angeles, which has about one-quarter of the state’s nearly 40 million residents, had 3 cases but that figure was adjusted to 1.6 because of the test level. Orange County’s unadjusted rate was 2.4, while San Bernardino’s was 3.

When the tier system was established last summer there was no vaccine and state officials wanted to encourage as many people as possible to get tested to be able to quickly spot surges in cases.

Barbara Ferrer, health director for Los Angeles and its nation’s largest county population of 10 million, said she’s “pleased with the testing rates and I have no concerns about it.”