Clothing maker Los Angeles Apparel has been ordered to remain closed following a coronavirus outbreak that public health authorities say killed four of the garment maker’s workers and infected more than 300 more.
The closing order last Friday comes as California battles a new wave of infections, and Governor Gavin Newsom announced Monday the closure of restaurants, bars, movie theaters, museums, and other establishments across the state that house customers in inside.
Public health officials said they initially closed operations at the Los Angeles factory owned by Dov Charney on June 27 after finding what they called “blatant violations of mandatory public health infection control orders.”
The clothing maker, which had reopened as an essential business for making facial masks, also did not cooperate when health officials investigated reports of an outbreak, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
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A medical worker on June 19 notified the regulator of a possible outbreak at the plant, with three workers dying of COVID-19 in June and another in early July, the city health department said.
“The death of four garment workers is heartbreaking and tragic,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “Business owners and operators have a corporate, moral and social responsibility to their employees and their families to provide a safe work environment that complies with all directives of health officials: this responsibility is important, now more than ever, as we continue to fight this deadly virus. “
Inspectors found multiple violations of social alienation and other rules at the plant, including the use of cardboard as a barrier among workers, according to public health officials. Charney then violated the original shutdown order by reopening his plant with new workers, they argue.
Charney, who started Los Angeles Apparel in 2016 after losing control of the American Apparel clothing brand he had founded years earlier, could not immediately be reached for comment. However, he described the closure announcement as “theatrical media theater” in an interview with the New York Times, calling the health department’s statement “not truthful.”
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The Charney plant had been producing hundreds of thousands of masks each week, he said. CBS MoneyWatch in March, explaining that when the staff at his factory was unable to obtain surgical masks, “we began to make our own.”
The founder and former CEO of American Apparel was removed from that position in 2014 amid allegations that he misused the funds and deliberately allowed sexual harassment.
According to John Hopkins University, 3,809 people have died from COVID-19 in Los Angeles, where a total of 133,549 cases have been confirmed.
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