Eateries eagerly await next level
Nearing red tier: Some businesses might be able to partially reopen Monday
Many Los Angeles County businesses — particularly restaurants — will be allowed to open indoors as early as next week, officials said Thursday, assuming all the coronavirus metrics line up as expected.
Department of Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced a range of less-restrictive health order modifications for businesses — also including movie theaters, gyms and shopping centers — that would kick in as soon at the county is approved to move from the purple tier to the red tier on the state’s statistical dashboard.
“We plan to move into the red tier very soon and that allows for more re-openings and permitted activi
ties in L.A. County,” Ferrer said in a statement. “This milestone is the result of businesses and individuals working together and doing their part to prevent COVID-19 from spreading. It will be up to everyone, businesses and residents, to continue driving down transmission and to follow safety directives closely to keep everyone as safe as possible by preventing increases in cases.”
The prospect of such reopenings — after a year of shutdown orders — emerged rapidly in recent days as the county’s coronavirus caseload and hospitalizations have declined in the wake of the winter surge.
Ferrer said Wednesday that L.A. County will be eligible to move from the state’s most restrictive purple tier by Wednesday, based on its current metrics, and she said, the change will likely happen before then.
Because of a recent tweak to the state’s health order, the businesses are expected to be able to begin the reopening process between 12:01 a.m. Monday and Wednesday, depending on when 2 million vaccine doses have been administered to people in at-risk communities across the state.
California was at 1.9 million such shots, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday during a Los Angeles event, adding that he expected to hit the mark today.
A county can move from the state’s most-restrictive purple tier to the less-restrictive red tier if the new daily case rate is under 10 per 100,000 population, rather than the current 7 per 100,000. Counties under the new benchmark could enter the red tier 48 hours after the state passes the vaccination target, state officials say.
For Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, which have been under 10 daily cases per 100,000 people for two weeks, they could enter the red tier as soon as Sunday, with approval from state and local health authorities. In addition to looser business rules, that would set the stage for reopening high schools and middle schools.
Officials from Pasadena, a city which operates its own health department, said they will align with county on its red tier directives.
Earlier in the day, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia announced that his city would largely align with the new state regulations. Earlier, Garcia said that “we feel so good about our numbers” in Long Beach that the city feels comfortable aligning with state regulations regardless whatever steps were to be taken by the county.
L.A. County health officials urged that all restaurant employees interacting with customers indoors be provided with N95 masks, KN95 masks or double masks with a face shield. Officials also recommended that all employees working indoors be offered a chance to be vaccinated.
Other rules for restaurants, according to public health officials:
• Restaurants can open indoors at 25% maximum capacity.
• Eight feet distance between tables.
• One household per table with a limit of six people.
• The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system must be in good working order
• Outdoor dining can include up to six people per table from three different households.
Other newly permitted activities can include:
• Museum, zoos and aquariums can open indoors at 25% capacity.
• Gyms, fitness centers, and yoga and dance studios can open indoors at 10% capacity, with masks required.
• Movie theaters can open indoors at 25% capacity with reserved seating only, with at least 6 feet of distance between groups.
• Retail and personalcare services can increase capacity to 50%, with masks required.
• Indoor malls can increase capacity to 50% with common areas remaining closed; food courts can open at 25% capacity, adhering to county rules for indoor dining.
• Institutes of higher education can reopen with required safety modifications.
• Schools are permitted to reopen for in-person classes for students in grades 7-12 adhering to all state and county directives.
• Private gatherings can occur indoors with up to three separate households, with masking and distancing required.
• People who are fully vaccinated can gather in small numbers indoors with other people who are fully vaccinated, without masks and distancing.
State health officials later Thursday issued rules allowing breweries and wineries that do not serve meals to reopen outdoors, while also setting a path for the reopening of bars.
According to the updated rules, beginning this Saturday, breweries, wineries and distilleries that do not serve meals will be permitted to reopen outdoors in counties that are in the restrictive “purple” and “red” tiers of the four-tier Blueprint for a Safer Economy. Customers must have advance reservations and will be limited to 90 minutes, and all onsite alcoholic beverage consumption must end at 8 p.m.
L.A. County had not issued word yet on Thursday whether it would align with that order.
The new state guidance also maintains the closure of bars in counties in the “purple” and “red” tiers. When a county moves into the “orange” tier, bars can reopen outdoors with safety modifications. Bars can reopen indoors at 25% capacity when a county reaches the least-restrictive “yellow” tier. Businesses embraced the decision, even though it was not a full indoor opening.
“Any opening is a good thing,” said Angela Marsden, owner of Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks, “but it’s going to be a lot to juggle.”
Marsden said she was mulling how many employees to hire back and where to have customers’ temperatures taken.
She had hoped health officials would reopen indoor dining at 50% capacity, but added “not everyone will want to come and dine inside.”
With a large parking lot, she was allowed to set up a large outdoor dining area outside her restaurant.
“I feel blessed because most people don’t have that,” she said. “I do believe I will survive this but there are so many that won’t.”
John Morris, owner of Boathouse on the Bay in Long Beach, said, “It will be nice to be open, especially with the weather the way it is.
“I know a lot of the restaurants within the city have struggled, especially with restaurants that had to rearrange their operations to open with outdoor parklets. We’re lucky to have had a beautiful patio with a view this entire time.”
Ferrer and public health officials, however, remain wary of potential surges that could be spurred by more people out in public — like those triggered by the July 4, Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays — and a growing number of swiftly spreading variants that have alarmed scientists.
The battle over indoor business has raged for months. County health officials have long remained concerned about reopening too quickly while industry groups and elected officials — including county supervisors — pushed for easing safer-at-home rules to help businesses rekindle their pandemic-rocked revenues. In response, protests were staged and lawsuits filed.
The county’s death toll, hospitalization rates and county caseloads rates have declined dramatically since the winter surge eased, but they are still much greater than normal, and also higher than levels reported in September and October.
Some officials contend that the county offered little empirical evidence exists to prove that indoor business spurred surges in caseloads. Health officials pointed to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study findings from 11 U.S. health care facilities that showed that close contact with persons with COVID-19 — or going to locations that offer onsite eating and drinking options — were associated with COVID-19 growth.
Earlier this month, a California appeals court sided with L.A. County public health officials, who halted outdoor dining during a November spike in COVID-19 cases.
Either way, Ferrer suggested local decisions have been informed by science and by what is happening statewide as well.
While the county’s coronavirus numbers are dropping, the baseline is still high; higher than when Newsom’s July order was issued.
Thursday, the county reported 101 new deaths and 1,378 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total case count to 1,208,024 positive cases across the county and 22,304 deaths. In cities that operate their own independent health departments:
•Long Beach actually showed a decrease of 13 cases from the day prior — to 51,571 — due to data processing updates, according to a city statement.
•In Pasadena, the death toll climbed by five, to 327, while total cases increased by eight, to 11,011.
Throughout the county, hospitalizations due to the disease continued to fall, to 1,015, with 287 in intensive care. The number hasn’t been that low since mid-November.