Mario Tama / Getty Images Travelers wait in line to check in for a flight at Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
As the new coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) continues to worsen in Los Angeles, the county has issued a new quarantine order for travelers.
Anyone traveling to Los Angeles County is expected to be in quarantine for 10 days, the Department of Public Health announced on Monday.
The department described exactly why it issued the order, which comes just days after the Christmas holiday – and the busiest day for trips to the airport since March, on December 23. Thousands of people are expected to travel back this week, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
“For those who have traveled outside of LA County and recently returned, you may have had contact with COVID-19,” says the department’s announcement. “The virus can take up to 14 days to incubate and, for many people, it does not cause disease or symptoms.”
“If you return to work, shopping or any meeting at any time in the next 10 days, you can easily pass the virus on to others. One unfortunate encounter with an individual with COVID-19 is enough for you to be infected and, unfortunately, for you to continue and infect others. “
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“Due to the likelihood of exposure to COVID-19 when traveling outside of LA County, for everyone who has traveled or plans to travel back to LA County, you should be quarantined for 10 days,” said the department, adding that any a person who has symptoms or a positive test is required to isolate for 10 days until he has no fever for 24 hours.
The new travel rule comes when targeted home stay requests have been extended to several regions of California, including San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, where the hospital’s ICU capacity is zero percent.
The Department of Public Health said the orders will remain in effect until hospital ICU capacities remain below 15%.
Meeting with non-family members is prohibited, everyone is required to stay at home “as much as possible”, business occupation must be limited and masking and social detachment are required, among other rules, by new orders.
LA County is currently consistently overcoming 13,000 new cases of COVID-19 a day, the Department of Public Health said. On November 1, the average number of daily cases was around 1,200.
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The county’s death rate has increased 600 percent since the beginning of November, when an average of 12 virus-related deaths per day occurred. In mid-December, the average number of deaths per day was 84.
“Since November 9, the average daily hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 have increased by more than 670 percent. These are the largest daily hospitalizations we’ve seen,” said the department. There are currently 6,914 people hospitalized because of the virus, and 20 percent of those are in the ICU.
There were more than 19.3 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States and more than 335,000 deaths related to the virus.
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