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Indoor dining is set to return to Los Angeles County, with health officials confirming Thursday that they will allow restaurants to welcome customers back to their limited-capacity dining rooms when the county switches to “ red ” level of economic reopening at four state levels. plan.
The county should go to the “red” level on Monday.
Although the state’s “Safer Economy Action Plan” allows indoor dining at the “red” level, individual counties are allowed to impose more stringent restrictions. Los Angeles County public health officials have repeatedly warned of the danger of COVID-19 spreading in restaurants, raising questions whether they would approve indoor meals when the county comes out. of the most restrictive level “purple”.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer twice this week referred to a new federal study that linked in-person meals to the increase in COVID cases and deaths.
But the county on Thursday released plans to reopen the “red” level, and it includes indoor dining at state-permitted capacity of 25 percent. The county will require restaurants to have an 8-foot distance between all tables, which will be limited to a maximum of six people from the same household.
The rules also call for an increase in ventilation “to the extent possible”.
Restaurant servers must already wear a face shield and a face shield. With the new rules, the Department of Public Health “strongly recommends” that employees upgrade their face covering, using higher quality N95 or KN95 masks, or a combination of double masking and a face shield.
Health officials also strongly recommend that all employees be informed and have the opportunity to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Food service workers are already eligible to receive the injections.
Rules applicable to other businesses once the county enters the “red” level are largely in line with state guidelines:
- museums, zoos and aquariums can open indoors at 25% of their capacity
- gyms and fitness centers can open indoors at 10% capacity, with masking required
- theaters can open at 25% capacity with reserved seating to provide at least six feet of distance between customers
- retail and personal care companies can increase indoor capacity to 50%
- indoor malls can reopen at 50% with common areas remaining closed, but food courts can open at 25% of capacity and in accordance with other indoor restaurant requirements.
The “red” level crossing will also allow theme parks to reopen on April 1 – including Disneyland in Orange County and Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles County – at 15% capacity, with visitors in the state only.
The rules also allow the resumption of activities in higher education institutions and the reopening of in-person education for students in grades 7 to 12. Private gatherings indoors are also permitted for people from up to three different households, with masking and physical distancing. People who have been vaccinated can gather in small groups indoors without masking or standing back.
County health officials said they plan to officially enter the “red” level between midnight Monday morning and next Wednesday. The exact time will depend on when the state hits a threshold announced by Governor Gavin Newsom to deliver 2 million doses of COVID vaccine in the state’s lowest-income communities.
Newsom said this week that the state will reach that threshold by Friday. As of Thursday morning, the state had administered 1,971,784 doses of the vaccine to these low-income communities. Ferrer said earlier that the county is expected to officially go “red” 48 hours after the state hits the vaccination threshold.
Plan your vaccine: how and where to get vaccinated.
According to Newsom’s most recent guidelines, when the state hits the 2 million vaccine milestone in low-income communities, counties will be able to exit the more restrictive “purple” level of the master plan when their average rate of new COVIDs is reached. daily – 19 infections reach 10 per 100,000 inhabitants – a more flexible standard than the current standard of 7 per 100,000 inhabitants.
Under the new guidelines, Los Angeles and Orange counties will immediately qualify to move to the least restrictive “red” level, as they have both been below the 10 per 100,000 standard for two weeks. Los Angeles County’s new case rate is currently 5.2 per 100,000 population, while that of Orange County is 6 per 100,000 population.
The idea behind the 2 million dose threshold is to ensure that vaccines are distributed fairly throughout the state, ensuring that low-income communities that have been disproportionately affected by the COVID pandemic -19 are not neglected in the vaccination effort. Newsom has ordered that 40% of the state’s vaccine supply be earmarked to ensure fairness in the distribution process.
Just a few months ago, waiting in long lines to get tested for COVID-19 was not unusual, but today NBC4 Team I learned that far fewer people are now waiting. online, even though testing for COVID-19 is still important in ending the pandemic. Investigative reporter Joel Grover reports on March 10, 2021.
Ferrer warned the county supervisory board on Tuesday that if the number of cases and the rate of positivity testing in the county have dropped precipitously in recent weeks, things could easily get worse if residents let themselves go about the measures. infection control.
“This is the month I would say – March, early April – where we have to be extremely careful,” she said. “Because we’ve been here before. We’ve been here with reopenings. We came here to travel on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have seen what happens around the holidays if we are not really careful. … We need to keep everyone alive now so they can get vaccinated and stay alive. This would therefore be the time to exercise extreme caution. ”
She specifically highlighted the spread of variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, which can spread more easily from person to person. Ferrer said the variant first identified in the UK has increased its reach in Los Angeles County and is now believed to be responsible for 10% of all COVID cases in the county.
“There are growing concerns about a global fourth wave of COVID-19 as cases started to increase in the last week of February, after six weeks of decline, especially in Europe,” said she declared.
The county reported 101 more deaths from COVID-19 on Thursday, although three of those deaths were actually announced by health officials in Long Beach on Wednesday. The new deaths pushed the death toll across the county from throughout the pandemic to 22,304.
Another 1,378 cases have been reported by the county. The new cases brought the cumulative pandemic total to 1,208,024.
According to state figures, there were 1,015 people hospitalized in the county due to COVID on Thursday, with 287 people in intensive care.
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