Los Angeles County beaches will be closed for the weekend of July 4 to avoid “dangerous overcrowding that causes the spread of the deadly COVID-19,” the county public health department said in a statement Monday. Fireworks will also be banned, the county said.
The closure begins just after midnight on July 3 and ends on July 6 at 5:00 a.m., the department said. It applies to all public beaches, piers, public beach parking lots, beach bike trails that cross sanded parts of the beach, and beach access points.
The decision does not apply to nearby Long Beach, which has its own health department, according to the statement.
The announcement comes as Los Angeles County reported more than 2,900 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, “the highest one-day case count since the pandemic began,” according to the department.
“The data shows increases in people who tested positive for the virus and increases in hospitalizations as a result,” the department said. “Department of Health Services projections show a marked increase in hospitalizations in the coming weeks, which could cause an increase in our health system.”
David McNew / Getty Images
“Closing the beaches and banning fireworks during this important summer vacation weekend was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but it is the responsible decision to protect public health and protect our residents from a deadly virus,” said Barbara Ferrer, county public director. Health. “The Fourth of July holiday weekend generally means big crowds and gatherings to celebrate, a recipe for further COVID-19 broadcast.”
Long Beach is not the only part of California with new coronavirus restrictions. Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted Sunday that the state is ordering the closure of bars in seven counties, and recommends the closure of bars in eight more, as the state approaches 217,000 cases and nearly 6,000 deaths.
Globally, there have been more than 10 million cases and more than 500,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins data.
.
