Restaurants can begin outdoor dining on Friday in L.A. County.
California’s stay-at-home order and curfew have been lifted in response to improving COVID-19 numbers across the state. The rate of infections, hospitalizations, intensive care unit capacity and vaccinations are all taken into consideration. Officials announced the changes on Monday with immediate effect, allowing counties to return to the tiered reopening system.
“California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for,” said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.
📣 #CA lifts the regional stay at home order statewide as four-week ICU capacity projections exceed 15% for the remaining impacted regions. Most counties are returning to the most strict (purple) tier of the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
For more info: https://t.co/hPFNkb1svN pic.twitter.com/Qx3GER53Li
— CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth) January 25, 2021
This rollback will take all 11 counties in the Southern California region (Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Mono, Imperial and Inyo) back to the most restrictive “widespread” purple tier. Meaning some nonessential businesses like salons can reopen with limited capacity and restaurants to resume outdoor dining service. State officials are also lifting the 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. as of Monday.
San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area and Southern California have been under the order since December 7, forcing most nonessential businesses and services to shut down completely. It came in response to the alarming post-Thanksgiving surge, which took most counties below the 15% ICU capacity threshold.
UPDATE: While most expected L.A. County to keep the current restrictions in place, health officials later announced that it would follow suit and align with the state by Friday this week. This was confirmed by Los Angeles County health director Dr. Barbara Ferrer in a press conference later in the day. Further details are yet to come, but capacity limits are expected to remain in place.
Los Angeles County to Align with State Health Officer Order Reopening Key Sectors, Including Outdoor Dining on Friday
Public Health Reports 43 New Deaths and 6,642 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County. View https://t.co/lVdgTyeUpa pic.twitter.com/NVmFRcAQNd— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) January 26, 2021
The tiered Blueprint for a Safer Economic framework allows activities to resume and businesses reopen based on local cases and test positivity rates, which are updated every Tuesday. However, counties are able to impose stricter rules where necessary. Tier updates are provided weekly on Tuesdays. Individual counties could choose to impose stricter rules.
Every county’s status and permitted activities can be found on the California Department of Public Health’s website.
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