Palm Beach County's State Of Emergency Lifted

Photo: CBS 12

Palm Beach County has lifted its local state of emergency.

The County Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to go along with a motion from Commissioner Melissa McKinlay.

"Our positivity rates have dropped. I don't think that we need to burden our hospitals with providing that data. I'd like to immediately rescind our emergency declaration."

The state of emergency was put into effect in August, amid the COVID summer surge. But health officials say the new case positivity rate is down to 4.1 percent.

County Health Director Dr. Alina Alonso said that there were just over 1,400 cases of the coronavirus between October 8 and 14, compared to a peak of around 9,000 weekly cases back when the emergency was declared.

Palm Beach has dropped from a "high" level of community transmission to a "substantial" level, with 96 COVID cases out of 100,000 residents. That was down over 60 cases from two weeks ago.

The emergency declaration was used to force hospitals to report their daily bed availability and other information.


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