“Don’t go to a Super Bowl party,” said Los Angeles County public health director Barbara Ferrer this week. “It will be tragic if the Super Bowl becomes a super promoter [event] for sports fans. “
Ferrer also referred to meetings after last year’s championship races by the Lakers and Dodgers, which public health officials said contributed to the wave of the virus falling. “We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past,” she said.
In that sense, while the LA Department of Health is allowing restaurants, wineries and breweries to reopen today, it has reduced capacity, greater social distance and no sports on TV. That’s right, about a week before the Super Bowl, the new LA rules prohibit TV viewing in local establishments.
Related Story
Super Bowl advertising: Covid-19 throws flags, but CBS and brands still have a chance to score points
The continuing requirement that “everyone who shares a table must be from the same house” seems to prevent friends from watching the game together. The same occurs with a new ban on promoted events. “Restaurants cannot host receptions, banquets or other coordinated, organized or invited events or
meetings ”, says the order.
And after being hammered by questions about the lack of empirical evidence – or even an explanation – for the previous restaurant restrictions, LA county officials tried to explain their reasoning this time around.
From order:
COVID-19 spreads mainly when people are physically close to a person with COVID-19 or have direct contact with that person. When people with COVID-19 cough, sneeze, sing, speak or breathe, they produce respiratory droplets. And, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk of spreading COVID-19 increases in a restaurant setting … as individuals remove their facial coverings while eating and drinking and there is greater interaction with those who do not live in the same house.
Below are the new rules published by LA Public Health on January 28.
• Employees who are able to contact customers must wear cover and face shield at all times when interacting with customers and in customer service areas.
• Seats at the outdoor dining table must be limited to a maximum of 6 people per table, all of whom must be from the same residence. All establishments must put signs and verbally inform customers that all persons sharing the table must be from the same household.
• Outdoor dining and seating with wine service must be reduced by 50%. External tables must be repositioned or removed so that all tables are at least 2.5 meters apart.
• Televisions or other screens that transmit programming must remain off until further notice.
It is unclear how the 50% external capacity will be established for restaurants that do not normally serve outdoors, but are now doing so to raise business.
Los Angeles County sued two restaurants this week that allegedly constituted a public nuisance for ignoring the decree put in place in late November to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The Los Angeles Superior Court case opened on Wednesday targets the Cronies Sports Grill on Kanan Road in Agoura Hills and the Tinhorn Flats Saloon & Grill on Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The suit calls for a reduction order directing both restaurants to bring their businesses into compliance with health orders and allow inspectors to enter to ensure compliance.
The suit also seeks assessments of civil penalties against companies for each day that allegedly failed to comply with health guidelines.
“We did not take this action lightly. However, as the complaint notes, ‘defendants’ actions are a public nuisance and should be stopped,’ ”said a statement from the Office of Countywide Communications.
Both companies received repeated warnings, written guidelines, quotes and calls to “do the right thing” and voluntarily comply with the health official’s mandates, the statement explained.
In fact, Deadline repeatedly observed the assembled customers – some without masks and many within 2 meters of each other – at the Agoura Hills restaurant. (See the photo of the story.) In December, there were rallies in front of the restaurant in protest against the masking and dinner demands.
To his credit, the restaurant owner was asking people to put on their masks and limiting the number of allowed customers, but it didn’t help. A line of likely drinkers and diners meandered down the sidewalk with only sporadic adherence to health protocols.
Daily numbers of Covid-19 infections have been declining in the past two weeks, after an increase that saw the county regularly report over 10,000 cases.
On Thursday, the Department of Public Health announced an additional 6,592 new Covid infections.
The number of hospitalizations also maintained a downward trend. According to state data, there were 5,855 people hospitalized due to Covid in the county on Thursday, including 1,503 in intensive care. This marks a dramatic drop from more than 8,000 patients reported in early January.
However, the county also reported another 213 deaths on Thursday. The new count raised the total death toll to 16,127. This represents 1,000 deaths in five days.
Health officials have warned that daily deaths are likely to remain high for the rest of the month, even as the number of cases and hospitalizations drop. Deaths are considered a lagging indicator, meaning that they naturally follow increases in hospitalizations, and in early January the daily population of hospitals reached 8,000.
Although the number of cases has improved, they still remain dramatically high. Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s director of health services, noted this week that while new admissions to Covid hospitals have dropped to around 500 a day from the recent high of around 700 a day, the current rate it is still double that of the increase in viruses that occurred last summer.
The city’s news service contributed to this report.