As Los Angeles County prepares for the first wave of limited business reopenings on Friday, officials are warning residents that continued adherence to safety regulations is essential to prevent a surge in cases and deaths.
County supervisor Hilda Solis said Thursday that anyone planning to take advantage of the newly accessible county trails should wear their face mask, maintain physical distance and limit the size of any group they participate in.
“I'm cautiously optimistic, but we can't move too quickly,” she said. “Simply put the virus does not get any less dangerous during this time, that we're staying at home. So we must be careful and we need to be deliberate.”
The relaxed rules allow florists, toy stores, clothing stores, bookstores and sporting goods stores to open for curbside pickup. Car dealers and golf courses will also be allowed to reopen Friday. All reopened businesses will have to follow distancing rules and infection control protocols. Solis said the county will move slowly as it allows more businesses to reopen to prevent a backslide in cases.
“Our goal is to begin the process of economic recovery, but we need to first minimize those risks,” she said. “And unfortunately, it will not be business as usual, as a lot of modifications will need to be made, but we hope our businesses will step up to the challenge for the safety of their workers, and for the general public.”
L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer reiterated the importance of masks, as the virus spreads through respiratory droplets that can be passed through a sneeze, cough or just casual conversion.
She said the ease of transmission combined with the 14 day period it may take to develop symptoms mean residents need to be cautious when they choose to reenter the economy because when more people are entering the public sphere, more people will get sick. She said the county’s 2,000 available hospital beds could quickly be overwhelmed if millions of Angelenos choose to resume activity.
“These numbers demonstrate that there is a lot at stake as we relax safer at home and that reopening our county, even slowly only works if we're all really committed to being careful, and we do all that we can to practice physical distancing, wearing cloth face coverings and washing or sanitizing our hands frequently,” she said. “Collectively we do share responsibility for each other so that businesses can continue to reopen without causing a spike in new cases of COVID-19, and that spike could result in many more people becoming very ill and unfortunately, some people may even die.”
She said consumers should consider what purchases they need to make.
“Just because something opens up, doesn't mean you have to go out and make purchases right now,” she said. “If you've been comfortable using online purchasing, you're still able to do that, and we do want you to know you are still safer at home, and you should only go out for what is essential.”
Ferrer said officials will be monitoring the situation and could move backwards if they deem it necessary.
“When the data indicators don't look good, we're going to reassess and if that means taking a step back, unfortunately, I will need to take that step back,” she said. However, she said personal responsibility will be necessary to keep moving forward.
“There are some things we can do to start to get some people back to work as long as every single one of us is willing to take a lot of personal responsibility for making sure this happens in a safe way as possible,” she said.
To date, Public Health has identified 29,427 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 1,418 deaths. As of Thursday, Santa Monica had 203 cases and 10 deaths.
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