Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday that LA opened too quickly and again warned that the city was close to imposing some kind of new order to stay home as coronavirus cases continued to rise.
Speaking on CNN, Garcetti was asked about a Los Angeles Times editorial criticizing the rapid reopening of California, which was followed by a large increase in both new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“I agree that those things happened too quickly,” Garcetti said, adding that those decisions were made at the state and county levels, not the city level.
At the same time, Garcetti said the city was “on the verge” of the new restrictions, but did not elaborate. The mayor has made the comment earlier in the past two weeks, saying the city would act if cases continued to rise, even after a series of state-imposed restrictions this month that included banning eating from covered restaurants and the closure of pubs. , shopping malls and other retailers in Los Angeles County and many other counties.
The mayor urged patience, saying it will take up to three weeks to know if the closings have helped curb the spread of the coronavirus.
He also made an optimistic note, saying LA is still in a good place when it comes to hospital capacity and available supply of ventilators.
“The cases have increased, but we also have the most aggressive tests,” he said. “We are the first city to offer testing to people without symptoms. And luckily 30% of what we’re catching is those people. ”
Still, Los Angeles County reported a record number of COVID-19 patients in its hospitals this week, and the overall proportion of tests that tested positive has increased from 8% to just under 10%, suggesting that There has also been an increase in community broadcasting.
The mayor attributed the increase in spread not only to reopens, but also to people who become less vigilant to follow public health guidance and meet others outside their homes.
“It is not just what is open and closed,” he said. “It’s also about what we do individually.”
Rather than the city being subject to another wide shutdown, Garcetti suggested he would prefer to take more targeted interventions to help those who were most vulnerable to serious illness or death from contracting the coronavirus.
He said that outside of skilled nursing facilities, black residents no longer die at a disproportionate rate relative to their share of the population, but officials are now seeing higher death rates among Latinos and low-income workers.
“Then I want to be more surgical,” he said. “I want to go to those factories where we are seeing propagation. I want to go to those communities, especially our low-income communities. … I think we have to be surgical instead of a blade that would just shut everything down. “
