New cases and hospitalizations are declining, and the daily case rate for the region has stabilized, Ferrer detailed.

“It will be a welcome relief if this current surge has peaked,” she said…

“Since most of our local data trends have just begun to decline, we decided to take a closer look at the hospital admissions rate using our own data … so that we can get a more precise sense of where we might be headed,” Ferrer said Thursday.

Ferrer remained hopeful that, given the declines in cases and hospitalizations, the county will move back down to the lesser category of community spread. And given that trend, county health officials decided to back away from reinstating the universal indoor masking requirement.

“We will be pausing and not moving forward at this time,” Ferrer indicated.