More businesses allowed to reopen while 'Safer at Home' Order extended indefinitely
LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County has extended its “Safer at Home” order indefinitely. While the county is slowly reopening some businesses, health leaders are urging people to still remain at home as much as possible, as L.A. County lost nearly another 50 lives overnight.
In addition to opening our beaches for active use, the county is now allowing all retail businesses to reopen for delivery or curbside pick-up, except those inside indoor shopping malls. Also authorized to open up again are tennis and pickleball courts, community gardens and bike parks, shooting and archery ranges, equestrian centers and model airplane centers.
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So when will restaurants open for dine-in, when can we go to the gym, a concert or sporting event? L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer says hitting the criteria of no COVID-19 deaths for two weeks in LA is nearly impossible right now. But there’s another option.
“Our best bet is to watch when the state feels like, as a state this would be an activity that we could all engage in and then we would have to make our own assessment depending on what our numbers look like, depending on what hospitalizations look like, depending on what deaths look like as to whether or not that makes sense for all of us in L.A. County,” said Dr. Ferrer.
As businesses slowly reopen, they will have to abide by stringent infection-control, physical-distancing and face-covering measures.
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“We will have an active dashboard and you’ll be able to watch the same data we’re looking at,” said Dr. Ferrer. “I’m hoping that will be up by the end of the week, so we’ll all be together on making sure we’re continuing to slow the spread.”
Dr. Ferrer says as the county relaxes some restrictions, it needs time to look at that data to make sure we don’t overwhelm our hospitals and cause many more families unnecessary grieving.
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“This virus is relentless and we still have more people dying of COVID-19 every day in L.A. County than they die of any other single disease,” said Dr. Ferrer.
In order to return to more normalcy, she says we are still lacking a vaccine, at-home test kits and therapeutic medicine to help combat such an easily transmitted virus.
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