UPDATED: The only fireworks you see this weekend could be on television.
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Lost Hills Station said via Twitter that Los Angeles County’s beaches, piers, bike trails and beach access points will be closed Friday through Monday for the weekend of July 4. .
The Lost Hills station, which is a local in Malibu, issued the following statement:
Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors announced the closure of our beaches, piers, beach bike trails, and beach access points from 7/3/2020 through 7/6/2020. The Malibu / Lost Hills Station Beach team will be patrolling the beaches throughout the weekend and late into the night. This new order makes it illegal to enter these places illegally and is punishable by law to include, among others, a $ 1,000 fine.
Related story
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti bans fireworks displays on the Fourth of July and puts a “hard pause” on movie reopens
Follow the Los Angeles County health mandates. We want to guarantee the health and safety of all our residents.
The news was later confirmed in a tweet by Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who wrote: “We can’t risk having crowds on the beach this holiday weekend.”
That, when a heat wave begins, with a forecast of temperatures of almost 100 degrees in the Valley for Sunday.
PREVIOUSLY, MONDAY 4:10 PM On Monday, the state of California and Los Angeles County set record levels in new cases. Officials at both levels of government quickly warned that they could be taking more restrictive measures.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said he would likely use the “dimmer switch” to toggle reopening measures in the hardest hit counties. He said there were seven counties, including Los Angeles, that would likely have to roll back their reopens. If the counties are ineffective with preventive measures, the state will step in and shut them down, he said. If the county’s remediation measures are not effective, “I am committed to intervening,” he said.
“Immediate action is needed,” said Los Angeles County Department of Public Health director Barbara Ferrer, before warning that the restrictions may be increasing.
When asked about the upcoming July 4 holiday weekend, Ferrer said: “We are looking, with our beach mayors, at all options to keep us safe.” When asked if this is a decisive week, Ferrer continued: “We cannot maintain this rate of increase in positive cases. This train can be a runaway train if we don’t put breaks on it. We have to rethink this new normal. “
Both Ferrer and Newsom warned of the impact that even small family gatherings and barbecues could have if they included mixing homes.
A report from the LA Times today says: “It is now clear that Memorial Day was the beginning of something. An analysis by the Los Angeles Times found that new coronavirus hospitalizations in California began to accelerate around June 15 at a rate not seen since early April. “
Memorial Day was May 25 of this year. It is also around the same time that protests against George Floyd’s death and police brutality began. The peak to which the Times refers occurred a little over two weeks later (14 days is the external incubation period for COVID-19).
So what does all this mean for the upcoming holiday weekend?
Well, on Friday, Governor Newsom ordered the heavily affected Imperial County to return to its home state. On Monday, Newsom said there were seven counties, including Los Angeles, that would likely have to roll back its reopens. If counties are not effective on the measures, the state will step in and shut them down again, he said.
“We are considering a number of other things to move forward and we will make those announcements accordingly,” Newsom said, “increasing orders and moving even more restrictive.”
In fact, the governor couldn’t even wait for his noon press conference today to order the closing of bars in those seven counties. He issued that order at noon on Sunday. It is unlikely, if the numbers continue to rise, that he will wait until after the long holiday weekend to begin “increasing” the current restrictions.
California’s new daily total of infections on Monday was 5,916. It’s only two weeks since the state first broke the 5,000 new case mark.
In Los Angeles, Ferrer said Monday the county saw 2,903 new cases, a record. The coronavirus has now infected a total of 100,772 people in Los Angeles County. According to the health department, the test’s cumulative positivity rate increased from 8% to 9%.
That does not bode well for the Fourth.
City News Service contributed to this report.
