California’s outdoor amusement parks and sports stadiums will be allowed to reopen with reduced capacity from April 1 in counties that meet certain limits for the coronavirus, state officials announced on Friday.
According to the revised guidelines, theme parks located in red tier counties, the second strictest of the four stages of the state’s reopening plan, will be allowed to operate at 15% capacity. The capacity limit increases to 25% in the orange layer and then to 35% in the yellow layer, where the COVID transmission is considered “minimal”. Participation, however, is limited to visitors in the state in all three tiers.
“With significantly lower case rates and hospitalizations, the arrival of three highly effective vaccines and targeted efforts to vaccinate the most vulnerable communities, California can gradually and safely begin to bring back more activities, especially those that take place on air free and where consistent masking is possible, ”Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said in a statement.
Previously, theme parks like Disneyland were not allowed to reopen until their home counties met the conditions to be at the yellow level, which requires a rate of less than 1 new case per day for every 100,000 people, according to Los Angeles Times.
There are currently 16 counties, including Santa Clara, where the Great America theme park is located, operating in the red layer. Orange and Los Angeles counties, which host Disneyland and Magic Mountain, are in the purple layer, the most restrictive reopening stage.
The changes announced on Friday also allow outdoor sports and live performances with fans to resume in reduced capacity at all four reopening stages. In the purple layer, the capacity will be limited to 100 people or less and the participants must be from the region only. Sites will also need to require advance reservations and will not be able to sell concessions.
At the red level, capacity will be limited to 20% and the concessions must be sold mainly to spectators in their seats. Capacity will increase to 33% in the orange layer and 67% in the yellow layer. Participation in all three stages will also be limited to California residents, officials said.
The new rules were quickly welcomed by Disneyland President Ken Potrock, who said park officials were eager to welcome visitors back after being closed for nearly a year.
“We are excited that the theme parks now have a way to reopen this spring, bringing thousands of people back to work and helping a lot of neighboring businesses and our entire community,” said Potrock in a statement. “With responsible Disney security protocols already in place around the world, we can’t wait to get our guests back and we look forward to sharing an opening date soon.”