LA mayor announces city-wide lockdown

Los Angeles County announced a new stay-home order as coronavirus cases surged out of control in the nation´s most populous county, banning most gatherings but stopping short of a full shutdown on retail stores and other non-essential businesses. The three-week order takes effect Monday and advises residents to stay home ‘as much as possible’ and to wear a face covering when they go out. It bans people from gathering with others who aren’t in their households, whether publicly or privately. However, exceptions are made for church services and protests, ‘which are constitutionally protected rights,’ the county Department of Public Health said in a statement. It came as the county of 10 million residents confirmed 24 new deaths and 4,544 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. The county had set a threshold for issuing the stay-home order: an average of 4,500 cases a day over a five-day period, but hadn’t expected to reach that level until next month. However, the five-day average of new cases reported Friday was 4,751. ‘We know we are asking a lot from so many who have been sacrificing for months on end,’ Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. ‘Acting with collective urgency right now is essential if we want to put a stop to this surge.’ Indoor retail businesses, which make much of their profits during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons, are allowed to remain open but with just 20 per cent of capacity, including nail salons and other personal care services. Restaurants in the county already were recently barred from in-person dining. They can still offer pickup, delivery and takeout services. Beaches, trails, and parks will remain open, with safety requirements.

The order, which runs through December 20, is more modest than a statewide closure order issued by Governor Gavin Newsom in mid-March. That order closed schools and most businesses and severely restricted movement except for essential workers or to perform essential chores such as buying groceries or picking up medications. The restrictions are said to have slowed the spread of COVID-19 and some restrictions were eased but the caseload picked up again in summer and in recent weeks has surged to record levels throughout most of the state – as well as throughout most states in the country.

Daily cases numbers in California have set records in recent days. Hospitalizations statewide have increased more than 80 per cent in the last two weeks.

Nearly 2,000 people in the county are now hospitalized and the new order is part of an effort to prevent the county’s health system from being overwhelmed. Meanwhile, public health officials are bracing for a wave of cases that could follow gatherings at Thanksgiving.

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, surpassed 383,00. Meanwhile, more than 7,600 residents of LA County have died after contracting COVID-19. Recent data also indicate a sharp spike in the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 With infections out of control, the other options for public officials to take are even more onerous and unlikely to be enacted in the US, said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. China, for example, tested millions of people and enforced quarantines. Italy brought in the military to enforce a shutdown. ‘It’s hard to imagine how much further you can go in a society like we have,’ he said. ‘It’s a balancing act, right? You want people to obey it but you don’t want to make it so draconian that people are trying to figure out ways around it all the time.’ The rate of hospitalizations – now at the highest since the pandemic began – has pushed some medical centers beyond capacity. The rapid increase comes after weeks of rising infection rates across the country and sees the total number of infections since the pandemic began pushed beyond 13 million, with 264,000 deaths.