Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm could reopen with limited capacity next month if Orange County changes to the red level based on state reopening guidelines after an abrupt announcement by state officials.
Editor’s note: As the only non-profit and non-partisan newsroom in Orange County, Voice of OC brings you the best and most comprehensive local news about Coronavirus absolutely free of charge. No ads, no paywalls. We need your help. Please make a tax-deductible donation today to support local news.
At a hastily scheduled press conference on Friday afternoon, the secretary of the state Health and Human Services Agency, Dr. Mark Ghaly, said that Red Level counties would be allowed to reopen theme parks with a 15% capacity and sports parks with 20% capacity in April 1
This means that Angel Stadium can also reopen.
“This includes all California theme parks and, in fact, your county must be on the red belt to start operating at 15% in amusement parks,” said Ghaly. “So, as they move to orange and yellow, those requirements change some, including capacity.”
Theme parks will be open to California residents only and will not be able to offer indoor meals. Indoor tours will also have limits based on space and length of the tour, officials said.
Theme parks have been closed for almost a year and the Disneyland resort area in Anaheim is mostly silent, as the city faces a $ 114 million deficit.
That red level could be reached earlier after another series of abrupt changes on Thursday to the reopening metrics.
To switch to the red level, counties must have fewer than seven new cases per 100,000 residents.
Orange County is on the edge, with 7.6 new cases per 100,000 residents.
But that metric is expected to be eased to 10 cases per 100,000 people after counties across Golden State vaccinate more people in the most affected communities.
The OC’s health officer, Dr. Clayton Chau, expects the county to reach the Red Level in a few weeks.
“I am confident and confident that we will be officially at the red level on Wednesday, 03/17,” Chau said in a text message on Friday after the theme park announcement.
Dee Dee Myers, an aide to Governor Gavin Newsom, has provided no specific way for parks to prevent state residents from circulating through the system.
“It is our hope that people will abide by the guidelines and it is our expectation that the parks will work to really encourage people in California to come and others not,” said Myers. “Just by reducing the mix and reducing the geography of where people are coming from, we think there is a ‘reduction in overall risk.”
Friday’s abrupt changes in theme park guidelines follow a series of sudden updates – from the reopening of indicators to the reopening of schools – as Newsom is likely to face a revocation election.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations continue to decline.
As of Friday, 339 people have been hospitalized, including 91 in intensive care units, according to the county Health Agency.
This is the lowest number of hospitalizations since mid-November, when new cases started to increase rapidly and people were increasingly going to the emergency room.
But deaths continue to increase.
The virus has already killed 4,075 people, including 62 deaths recently reported on Friday.
That’s more than seven times the number of people that flu kills in CO on an annual average.
Orange County has averaged about 20,000 deaths per year since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to state health data.
It also kills more than heart disease, Alzheimer’s and stroke on an annual average, respectively.
According to state mortality statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more
2,800, more than 1,400 die from Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
Orange County has already surpassed its annual average of 20,000 deaths, with 23,883 people killed in December, according to the latest available state data.
Here is the latest information on virus numbers in Orange County from county data:
Infections | Hospitalizations and deaths | City to city data | Demography
Spencer Custodio is a reporter for the Voice of OC team. You can contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporting fellow. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
Reporter Nick Gerda contributed to this story.