Indoor dining is set to return to Los Angeles County, with health officials confirming Thursday that they will welcome limited-capacity customers back into their dining room as they move into the county state’s four-tier economic opening “red” tires.
The county is expected to move into “red” tires as early as Monday.
However, while the state’s “blueprint for a safe economy” allows indoor dining at the “red” level, individual counties are allowed to impose stricter restrictions. Los Angeles County public health officials have repeatedly warned of the dangers of COVID-19 spreading in restaurants, raising questions about whether they will allow indoor dining when the county goes beyond the highly restricted “purple” level.
Twice this week, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer cited a new federal study that linked eating to a person with COVID cases and increased mortality.
But the county on Thursday unveiled its “red” level plans, which include indoor dining at a state-authorized capacity of 25%.
The rules also call for “increasing ventilation as much as possible.”
Restaurant rent servers are already required to wear a face mask and facial wear. With the new rules, the Department of Public Health “strongly recommends” that employees upgrade their facial upgrade through the use of high face N95 or KN95 masks, or by the combination of double-masking and face shields.
Health officials also strongly recommend that all employees be informed and given the opportunity to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Food service workers are already eligible to receive shots.
Once the county enters the “red” tire, the rules for other businesses are largely aligned with state guidelines:
- Museums, zoos and aquariums can open indoors at 25% capacity
- The gym and fitness center can open indoors at 10% capacity with the necessary masking
- Movie theaters can open at 25% capacity with a reserved seat to provide a minimum distance of six feet between patrons.
- Retail and personal care businesses can increase indoor capacity by 50%
- Indoor shopping malls can reopen at 50%, even though common areas are closed, but food courts can reopen with a capacity of 25% and follow other requirements for indoor restaurants.
“Going to Red’ Tires will also allow the theme park to reopen in early April – including Disneyland in Orange County and Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles County – with 15% of capacity only state visitors.
These rules allow resumption of activities in institutions of higher learning and reopening of individual instruction to students in grades 12-12. In addition to masking and physical distance, private indoor gatherings are also allowed for people from as many as three different homes. Those who are vaccinated can gather indoors in small groups without masks or gaps.
County health officials said they expect to officially enter the “red” level Monday morning and midnight next Wednesday. The threshold announced by Gavin News of the state government will depend on the exact time when Kovid administers 2 million doses of the vaccine. The lowest income communities in the state.
The state will meet that threshold by Friday, News reported this week. As of Thursday morning, the state had administered 1,971,784 vaccine doses to those low-income communities. Ferrer previously said the county is expected to officially move to the “red” level 48 hours after the state meets the vaccination threshold.
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Under News’ most recent guidelines, when the state reaches the 2 million vaccine milestone in low-income communities, counties will be able to break out of the blueprint’s most restricted “purple” level when their average daily new COW rate is 19 infections per 100,000 inhabitants – up to 10. Retail standard than the current 7 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Under the new guidelines, both Los Angeles and Orange Counties will immediately qualify to move to the less-restricted “red” level, as they are both below the 100,000 standard for two weeks. Los Angeles County’s new case rate is currently 5.2 per 100,000 residents, while Orange County’s is 6 per 100,000.
The idea behind the 2 million dose threshold is to ensure that vaccines are being distributed evenly across the state to low-income communities disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 epidemic in vaccination efforts. Newsom has ordered that 40% of the state’s vaccine supply be allocated to ensure uniformity in the distribution process.
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Ferrer warned the county board of supervisors on Tuesday that the number of cases and test-positivity rates in the county have dropped sharply in recent weeks, and things could easily go awry if residents are lax about infection-control measures.
He said, ‘This month I will say – the month of March, the beginning of April – where we have to be extremely careful.’ He said. “Because we’ve been here before. We’ve reopened here. We’ve come here with Thanksgiving and Christmas travel around. We’ve seen what happens around the holidays if we’re not really careful. … All of us right now. “It’s time to dump her and move on.”
She specifically pointed out the spread of different types of viruses that cause COVID-19, which spreads more easily from person to person. Ferrer said the first known variant in the United Kingdom is expanding its reach in Los Angeles County, and is now believed to be responsible for 10% of all counties in the county.
He said there was also growing concern about the fourth wave of Covid-1 of the world as the case began to grow in the last week of February, especially after a six-week decline in Europe. ”
On Thursday, the county noted the deaths of 101 other COVID-19s, although three of those casualties were actually announced Wednesday by health officials at Long Beach. The new deaths increased the county death toll during the epidemic to 22,304.
Another 1,378 cases were announced by the county. The new cases increased the accumulated epidemic to a total of 1,208,024.
As of Thursday, 1,015 people had been hospitalized in the county due to covid, compared to 287 in intensive care, according to state statistics.
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