L.A. area halts in-person dining
Statewide curfew also takes effect in 41 of 58 Calif. counties
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County announced new coronavirus-related restrictions Sunday that will prohibit in-person dining for at least three weeks.
Officials statewide begged Californians to avoid traveling or gathering in groups for Thanksgiving.
The new restrictions in Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, came as the California Department of Health and Human Services reported more than 15,000 coronavirus cases statewide Saturday, by far the highest level since the pandemic began in March. A further 14,000 cases were recorded Sunday.
California’s average daily number of coronavirus cases has tripled in the last month, the Los Angeles Times found in an analysis, while COVID-19 hospitalizations have doubled in the same time period.
A curfew that affects most of the state took effect Saturday requiring people to stay home from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. unless they are responding to an emergency, shopping for groceries, picking up takeout or walking their dogs. The monthlong curfew could be extended if rapidly worsening trends don’t improve.
Authorities say the focus is on keeping people from social mixing and drinking without masks on, the kinds of activities that are blamed for causing the number of COVID-19 infections to soar after dipping only a few months ago. They also have warned against Thanksgiving travel or mixing of several households.
L.A. County’s new rules take effect Wednesday at 10 p.m. Restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars will be able to offer only takeout, drive-thru and delivery services.
County officials had warned that these restrictions could come if the county’s five-day average of new cases was above 4,000 or hospitalizations were more than 1,750 per day. Sunday’s five-day average was 4,097 cases, and there were 1,401 hospitalizations.
Los Angeles County officials are on the verge of announcing even more stringent measures, including a possible lockdown if the number of cases climbs further.
The state curfew applies to 41 of the state’s 58 counties that are in the “purple” tier, the most restrictive of four tiers allowing various stages of economic reopening. Those counties encompass 94 percent of the nearly 40 million people living in the most populous U.S. state.
A group gathered in Huntington Beach at 10:01 p.m. Saturday night in defiance of the curfew, waving American flags and not wearing masks. More than 100 people rallied Saturday in downtown Fresno, urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to “open California safely.”