In-house restaurants are about to return to Los Angeles County, with health officials confirming on Thursday that they will allow restaurants to welcome customers back into their limited-capacity dining rooms when the county moves to the “red” level of economic reopening of four levels of the state. project.
The county is expected to move to the “red” level as early as Monday.
Although the state’s “Safer Economy Project” allows indoor meals at the “red” level, individual counties may impose stricter restrictions. Los Angeles County public health officials have repeatedly warned of the danger of COVID-19 spreading in restaurants, raising questions about whether they would approve indoor dining when the county comes out of the more restrictive “purple” layer.
The Director of Public Health, Barbara Ferrer, referred twice this week to a new federal study that linked face-to-face meals to the increase in COVID cases and deaths.
But the county unveiled its plans to reopen the “red” level on Thursday, and includes indoor meals at the state-authorized 25% capacity. The county will require that restaurants have 2.5 meters of distance between all tables, which will be restricted to a maximum of six people from the same household.
The rules also require that ventilation be increased “as much as possible”.
Waiters at the restaurant should already wear a face mask and face shield. With the new rules, the Department of Public Health “strongly recommends” that employees update their facial coverings, through the use of top-grade N95 or KN95 masks, or a combination of a double mask and face protection.
Health officials also strongly recommend that all employees be informed and given the chance to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Food service workers can now receive injections.
The rules for other companies, once the county enters the “red” level, broadly align with state guidance:
- museums, zoos and aquariums can open indoors with 25% capacity
- gyms and fitness centers can open indoors with 10% capacity, with mandatory masking
- cinemas can open at 25% capacity with reserved seats to provide at least six feet of distance between customers
- retail and personal care companies can increase internal capacity by 50%
- internal malls can reopen by 50%, with common areas remaining closed, but food courts can open at 25% capacity and in compliance with other requirements for closed restaurants.
The move to the “red” level will also allow the theme parks to reopen as early as April 1 – including Disneyland in Orange County and Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles County – with 15% capacity, with visitors only in the state.
The rules also allow the resumption of activities in higher education institutions and the reopening of face-to-face education for students from the 7th to the 12th grade. Private indoor meetings are also allowed for people from up to three different families, with masking and physical distance. Vaccinated people can gather in small groups inside the home, without masking or distancing themselves.
County health officials said they expected to officially enter the “red” level between midnight Monday and Wednesday. The exact time will depend on when the state reaches the threshold announced by Governor Gavin Newsom to administer 2 million doses of the COVID vaccine in the lower income communities of the state.
Newsom said this week that the state will reach that limit on Friday. As of Thursday morning, the state administered 1,971,784 doses of vaccine in these low-income communities. Ferrer said earlier that the county should officially move to the “red” level 48 hours after the state reaches the vaccination threshold.
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According to the latest Newsom guidelines, when the state reaches the 2 million vaccine milestone in low-income communities, counties will be able to move out of the more restrictive “purple” layer of the plan when their average rate of new COVID- daily 19 infections reach 10 per 100,000 residents – a more flexible pattern than the current 7 per 100,000 residents.
Under the new guidelines, Los Angeles and Orange counties will immediately qualify to move to the less restrictive “red” level, as both were below the 10 per 100,000 standard two weeks ago. The new Los Angeles County case rate is currently 5.2 per 100,000 residents, while Orange County is 6 per 100,000.
The idea behind the 2 million dose limit is to ensure that vaccines are distributed equitably across the state, ensuring that low-income communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic COVID-19 are not overlooked in the vaccination effort. Newsom ordered 40% of the state’s vaccine supply to be set aside to ensure equity in the distribution process.
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Ferrer warned the county Council of Supervisors on Tuesday that, although case numbers and the test’s positive rate in the county have plummeted in recent weeks, things can easily get worse if residents become negligent with the measures. infection control.
“This is the month, I would say – the month of March, the beginning of April – when we have to be extraordinarily cautious, ” she said.” Because we’ve been here before. We have already been here with reopenings. We were here on Thanksgiving and Christmas trips. We have already seen what happens on vacation if we are not very careful. … We have to keep everyone alive now so they can be vaccinated and stay alive. So this would be a time for extreme caution. ”
She specifically pointed to the spread of variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, which can spread more easily from person to person. Ferrer said the variant first identified in the UK has increased its reach in Los Angeles County, and is now believed to be responsible for 10% of all COVID cases in the county.
“There is also growing concern about a fourth worldwide wave of COVID-19, as cases began to rise in the last week of February, after six weeks of decline, particularly in Europe,” she said.
On Thursday, the county reported another 101 deaths from COVID-19, although three of those deaths were announced on Wednesday by health officials in Long Beach. The new deaths increased the death toll across the county during the pandemic to 22,304.
Another 1,378 cases were announced by the municipality. The new cases increased the cumulative total of the pandemic to 1,208,024.
According to state data, there were 1,015 people hospitalized in the municipality on behalf of COVID until Thursday, 287 of whom were in intensive care.