Super Bowl may test virus progress
Officials worry that game-viewing parties, outdoor dining will trigger another surge.
With coronavirus cases and hospitalizations continuing to decline, officials are worrying about the next potential superspreader event: the Super Bowl.
Los Angeles County and California have managed to bend the curve after a deadly fall and winter surge in COVID-19, but the football championship is one of several concerns. Outdoor dining is expected to be allowed to resume at restaurants as early as Friday, the last of several stay-at-home restrictions to be lifted this week.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday urged people to keep up their guard and limit exposure to the virus.
“It’s about minimizing risk,” Garcetti said during an evening news briefing. Even as COVID-19 hospitalizations have fallen from a peak of 8,098 on Jan. 5 to 5,855 on Wednesday, the number is still far higher than it was in early October, when fewer than 700 COVID-19 patients were in the hospital.
Said the mayor: “Progress is very fragile.”
L.A. County’s average daily number of cases has fallen over the last two weeks, from about 15,100 cases a day for the weeklong period that ended Jan. 13 to about 7,400 cases now. Daily COVID-19 deaths are expected to remain high for the next couple of weeks; on
Thursday, 212 deaths were recorded. L.A. County is averaging 209 deaths a day over the last week, down from an average of 241 deaths a day for the sevenday period that ended Jan. 14.
Garcetti urged people to continue wearing masks when not eating or drinking and to exercise caution when meeting or gathering with people outside their immediate household.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs take the field for the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 7, and officials fear big social gatherings such as the holiday events will push another winter surge.
“It will be tragic if the Super Bowl becomes a superspreader of coronavirus,” county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week. She urged restaurants, in reopening outdoor dining areas, not to repeat the mistakes in the run-up to the World Series and NBA Finals, when crowds of fans who crammed into outdoor dining patios are believed to have been a major factor in the deadliest surge of the pandemic in L.A. County.
More than 9,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in L.A. County since Nov. 1, more than half of the county’s cumulative COVID-19 death toll of 16,127.
County health officials have long pointed to gatherings held among people from different households as a primary driver of coronavirus transmission. The risk is heightened in crowded settings, when people aren’t wearing masks and when they’re chanting, singing or shouting — because doing so can propel the respiratory aerosols and droplets that carry the virus even greater distances.
That’s why health officials were alarmed by the celebrations, both impromptu and planned, held to mark the championship triumphs in the fall of the Lakers and Dodgers, and why a typically huge social event such as the Super Bowl is cause for concern.
An uptick in transmission could slow or halt the county’s progress toward wider reopenings, such as a return of students to more elementary schools, or refuel the now-fading surge.
“Every person and every business must continue to take every precaution every day to prevent transmission,” Ferrer said. “It’s really up to us whether we can sustain these reopenings without jeopardizing each other’s health and our ability to get more schools to reopen.”
This year, sports fans should “play it safe,” Ferrer said.
“Don’t organize a party at home. Don’t go to a Super Bowl party.”
An increase in transmission, officials warn, will result in more infections, hospitalizations and deaths.