Indoor dining will probably be back as early as Monday as LA County is preparing to move to the “red” tier

Indoor dining returns to Los Angeles County. Health officials confirmed Thursday that restaurants would allow customers to re-enter the dining room with limited capacity when the county moved to the “red” layer of the state’s four-level economic resumption blueprint. Did. ..

The county will move to the “red” layer as early as Monday.

The state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” allows indoor dining in the “red” layer, but individual counties are allowed to impose stricter restrictions. Los Angeles County public health officials have repeatedly warned of the dangers of COVID-19 epidemic in restaurants and whether the county will approve indoor meals when it leaves the most restrictive “purple” layer. I am asking questions about.

Public health director Barbara Ferrer twice this week referred to a new federal study linking face-to-face diets to increased COVID cases and mortality.

However, on Thursday the county announced plans to reopen its “red” layer, which includes indoor meals in 25% state-approved capacity.

In the county, the distance between all the tables in the restaurant should be 8 feet. This is limited to a maximum of 6 people in the same household. The regulations also call for increased ventilation “as much as possible”.

Restaurant servers must wear face masks and face shields. Under the new regulations, the Public Health Service “strongly recommends” employees to upgrade their face covers with high-quality N95 or KN95 masks, or a combination of double masking and face shields.

Health officials are also strongly encouraged to notify all employees about COVID-19 vaccination and provide them with the opportunity. Workers in the food service industry are already eligible to receive shots.

Once the county is in the “red” tier, other business rules are in line with state guidance.

• Museums, zoos and aquariums can be opened indoors with 25% of their capacity
• Gyms and fitness centres can be opened indoors with 10% capacity using the required masking
• Cinemas can be opened with 25% capacity in designated seats to provide a distance of at least 6 feet between patrons
• Retail and personal care businesses can increase indoor capacity to 50%
• The indoor shopping mall can be reopened at 50% and the common areas remain closed, while the food court has a capacity of 25% and can be opened according to other requirements of the indoor restaurant.

Moving to the “red” tier will allow theme parks such as Disneyland and Universal Studios to reopen as early as April 1st at 15% of capacity, making them available only to visitors in the state.

The status of bars, breweries and wineries that do not serve meals is unknown. State guidelines allow the bar to be opened outdoors by moving to the “red” level, but customers must book in advance and can only stay for 90 minutes.

Bars, breweries and wineries that serve meals continue to comply with the same rules as restaurants.

The rule also allows the resumption of activities in higher education institutions and the resumption of face-to-face instruction for grades 7-12 students.

Private indoor meetings are also allowed for people in up to three different households, with a physical distance from masking. Fully vaccinated people can gather indoors in small groups without masking or distance.

County health officials said they expect to officially enter the “red” layer between midnight Monday and next Wednesday. The exact time depends on when the state reaches the threshold announced by Governor Gavin Newsom to administer 2 million doses of COVID vaccine in the state’s lowest-income community.

Newsom said this week that the state would meet that standard by Friday. As of Thursday morning, the state had vaccinated 1,971,784 times in these low-income communities. Feller said earlier that the county is expected to officially move into the “red” layer 48 hours after the state meets vaccination standards.

According to Newsom’s latest guidelines, when the state reaches 2 million vaccine milestones in the low-income community, the county has a daily new COVID-19 average rate from the most restricted “purple” layer of the blueprint. You can get out. Infectious diseases reach 10 per 100,000 – a looser standard than the current 7 per 100,000.

Under the new guidelines, Los Angeles County and Orange County are both below the 10 per 100,000 standard in two weeks, so they are eligible to move quickly to the less restrictive “red” hierarchy. The new case rate for Los Angeles County is currently 5.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, while the new case rate for Orange County is 6 per 100,000.

The idea behind the 2 million dose threshold is to ensure that vaccines are distributed fairly throughout the state and that low-income communities disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic are not overlooked in vaccination efforts. Is to. Newsom has ordered 40% of the state’s vaccine supply to be allocated to ensure the fairness of the distribution process.

Feller told the county’s supervisory board on Tuesday that the number of cases and test positives in the county have fallen sharply in recent weeks, but things can easily get worse if residents are lazy about infection control measures. I warned that there was sex.

“This is the month I say — March, the beginning of April — the month we have to be very cautious,” she said. “Because we’ve been here before. We’re back here. We’re here on Thanksgiving and a trip around Christmas. If you’re not really careful, what’s around the holidays? I’ve seen if this happens …. We need to keep everyone alive right now so that we can be vaccinated and stay alive, so this is the time to be very careful. “

She specifically pointed out the spread of a variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, which can spread more easily from person to person. According to Feller, the first variant identified in the United Kingdom has expanded its coverage in Los Angeles County and is now believed to account for 10% of all COVID cases in the county.

“Especially in Europe, there is growing concern about the global fourth wave of COVID-19 as cases began to increase in the last week of February, following a six-week decline,” she said. I did.