After an alarming spike in COVID-19 cases, indoor service is halted immediately.
Ahead of a potentially disastrous weekend of crowding over the Fourth of July holiday, California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered all visits to L.A. County restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, entertainment centers, movie theaters, zoos, museums and card rooms to stop immediately. This comes shortly after bars were ordered to shut down on Sunday, June 28—almost immediately after reopening—and after it was announced that L.A. County beaches would be closed for the entire holiday weekend.
“COVID-19 is still circulating in California, and in some parts of the state, growing stronger,” Newsom said in Sunday’s statement. “That’s why it is critical we take this step to limit the spread of the virus in the counties that are seeing the biggest increases.” California has reached 232,466 confirmed cases, with L.A. County accounting for 103,529 of those cases.
#COVID19 cases are spreading at alarming rates in some CA counties.
Effective immediately, @CAPublicHealth is requiring counties that have been on the County Monitoring List for at least 3 days to move certain sectors outdoors or close. pic.twitter.com/NZv7cUHf9L
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) July 1, 2020
The reinstated lockdown will be in place for the next three weeks in 19 counties currently experiencing significant spikes, although all of this is subject to change at any point depending on the numbers.
Restaurant dining rooms were only recently allowed to reopen with specific measures in place and at only 60% capacity on May 29 after being shuttered since March 15. However, Newsom has expressed that this does not mean a complete shutdown of any of the indoor activities mentioned above, but simply to move it outdoors (if possible) to curb the rapid spread.
The new standard of reversing the reopening places a county showing prolonged spikes in cases—which is defined as two-week average of more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents, or more than 25 cases per 100,000 residents and a weekly average positivity rate of at least 8%—it will be placed on the state’s watch list. A hospitalization rate increase of an average of more than 10% over three days, or a drop in hospital capacity to fewer than 20% of beds or fewer than 25% of ventilators available will also land a county on the watch list.
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