In-person dining will end Wednesday night for the next three weeks at Los Angeles County restaurants as a divided Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors upheld the closure decision on Tuesday. However, Supervisors did not take any action on enacting a new Safer at Home lockdown, but they may soon.
That restaurant closure decision came despite questions about whether eateries were being unduly punished for the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Janice Hahn brought a motion seeking to maintain the status quo of allowing outdoor dining at restaurants, breweries and wineries to continue. However, Supervisors Sheila Kuehl, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Hilda Solis stood behind the plan to temporarily ban in-person dining at restaurants.
Meanwhile, more restrictions appear to be on tap for residents and businesses due to the surge. During the supervisors’ meeting, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer outlined plans a “targeted Safer at Home” order that would prohibit all public and private gatherings of people not in the same household, with exceptions only for outdoor church services and constitutionally protected protests.
The proposed order, which met with no objections from the board, would allow other retail businesses to stay open but would further restrict capacity and continue to require the use of masks and social distancing. The plan would stop short of the complete lockdown imposed in March at the outset of the pandemic. Schools would also remain open for high-need students and under TK-2 school-specific waivers, as would beaches, parks and trails.
It was unclear when that order might take effect.
The board’s discussion of the ban on outdoor dining came one day after the county announced a single-day record 6,124 new coronavirus infections. The numbers pushed the five-day average of daily new cases above 4,500 — the threshold set by the county last week to trigger a “targeted Safer at Home” order.
“Our data at this point in time … are the most alarming metrics that we’ve ever seen,” Ferrer said.
Ferrer said it would take two to three weeks to see the full impact of the latest surge in cases on hospital capacity, but said, “The risk at this point is that overwhelming the health care system is a real possibility.”
On Sunday, the county reached a five-day daily average of 4,000 cases, which was the previously announced threshold to cut off in-person dining at restaurants, wineries and breweries. As a result, the county announced Sunday afternoon that in-person dining would be prohibited beginning at 10 p.m. Wednesday, continuing for three weeks. Restaurants will still be permitted to offer take-out and delivery service.
Although the Board of Supervisors signed off on the thresholds last week, Barger and Hahn said they never expected to hit the target so quickly.
Hahn said she thought the county might be able to avoid the thresholds based on earlier restrictions, but was now concerned the county is going too far.
“I have never experienced the kind of pushback I am hearing,” Hahn said of the in-person dining ban. “The public doesn’t think that that recommendation is right, and they don’t think it’s going to work, and they are really losing faith and trust in the decisions that we’re making.”
The California Restaurant Association filed suit Tuesday, unsuccessfully seeking an injunction to stop the ban. A host of residents spoke at the board meeting via videoconference, largely opposing the ban.
Paul Little, president of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, said, “The current surge in COVID-19 cases is attributed to Halloween events, the Dodgers and Biden’s victory, not outdoor dining and restaurants, shopping and retail stores or exercising. It makes no sense to penalize restaurants when they are not causing the surge in infection rates. Socially distanced and safe outdoor dining is exactly that: safe.”
While the Board of Supervisors was discussing the issue, the Los Angeles City Council adopted an emergency resolution urging the county to allow in-person dining to continue.
Supervisor Barger had earlier cited estimates by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation that approximately 700,000 food industry jobs could be lost, with 75% of those losses affecting workers earning $50,000 or less annually.
“I feel this is arbitrary and punitive toward outdoor dining and restaurants,” Barger told her colleagues Tuesday.
Barger pushed back hard against the idea that science supported the need to shut down dining, saying that cases were higher in part because of residents rushing to be tested before the Thanksgiving holiday.
“We have even seen our positivity rate drop over the last four days. Right now, our positivity rate is the same as when we began to open Safer at Home,” Barger said. “There is no sufficient data to show that outdoor dining has led to significant transmission. … No other county has taken the step to close outdoor dining.”
Ferrer did not directly refute that comment in the meeting, but noted Monday that the surge in cases is not just the result of increased testing. She said the county’s recent rise in positivity rates shows the virus is spreading more rapidly. The county’s seven-day average daily positivity rate among those tested for the virus was 3.9% on Nov. 1, but it rose to 5.1% by Nov. 8 and stood at 7.1% as of Saturday.
Barger suggested aligning with state guidelines and holding off on new restrictions for two weeks to see the impact of earlier restrictions. But Ferrer said case counts would not decrease without further restrictions.
“We can’t really keep waiting to take action, Ferrer said. “It’s not like without taking some additional steps we’re likely to see ourselves back to a more reasonable case number.”
The real issue is hospitalization, but the case count is an early indicator of that, Ferrer said, while warning that an increase in deaths was sure to follow.
Dr. Christina Ghaly, who runs the county hospital system, reiterated the concern about hospital capacity and clarified that it is not based on the number of actual beds.
“At this point, unless changes have been made in people’s behavior … to reduce transmission and unless steps continue to be made, then I do anticipate that we will use up those currently available beds,” Ghaly said. “The problem … is not physical beds… The challenge, as it has been throughout the pandemic, is with staffing.”
Hospitals can shift some staff, but have no ability to draw on other regions for medical personnel given the nationwide surge in cases, Ghaly explained.
Ferrer and Public Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis acknowledged that contact tracing cannot definitively point to outdoor dining as the cause of the surge, but stressed it is the only retail activity that allows customers to be mask-less for long periods of time.
Supervisor Kuehl underlined the risk that poses to staff and other customers.
“It’s a bit of magical thinking on everyone’s part to think that at any restaurant anywhere that the server keeps a six foot distance from the table,” Kuehl said. “I sadly, but strongly, support moving our restaurants back to take-out and delivery.”
Supervisor Hahn suggested that the county simply crack down on the 20% of restaurants failing to comply with health orders. But Ferrer pointed out that health inspectors can only make weekly visits to about 1% of the 31,000 restaurants countywide.
Ferrer and the board agreed on one thing: everyone should cancel their Thanksgiving plans and stay at home.
“Please cancel your plans. I know I did,” Hahn said in a statement released after the meeting. “This situation is serious. Our healthcare employees, our workers and businesses are depending on us turning this around.”
The city of Long Beach, which maintains its own health department separate from the county, announced that it will follow in the county’s footsteps and also end in-person dining Wednesday night.
Some Pasadena City Council members indicated a desire Monday night to keep restaurants open for in-person dining. City officials said health officials will assess the situation day-by-day, but so far no move has been made to end in-person dining in Pasadena.
On a motion from Barger, the board approved allocating an additional $10 million in coronavirus relief funding for local businesses, with a focus on restaurants. The board also directed health officials to engage university researchers in developing responses to the pandemic and crafting reopening plans.
L.A County is now estimating 1 in 145 County residents is currently (right now!) capable of infecting others. Outside of private gatherings, outdoor restaurant dining was the most common way different households were mingling for extended periods with masks down- all key proven risk factors. L.A. County estimates 10-15% of cases from outdoor dining. This was a painful, but logical and timely, step to take as this is the highest estimated number of contagious infections since the high in late June of 1 in 140. In Chicago it is now estimated up to 1 in 15 is currently infectious, all… Read more »
All of you should have too pay the bills for the workers. Also no evidence of any COVID-19 cases. Let’s have a protest for all the restaurants that are closed or going bankrupt. They say protest are OK. Thank You la county. Give up your psy
Neither the public health officials nor the county supervisors have any data to support their decision. They enjoy the power they have to watch an entire city do their bidding. I just heard that in Vermont when children return to school Monday, teachers are going to ask them what their family did for the holiday. If the school finds from these kids that the family violated some random rule, that entire family will be quarantined and possibly even fined. This is beginning to look too much like a very ugly time in Germany’s history and what led up to it… Read more »
The 3 supervisors who voted to uphold the lockdown need to go without their paychecks for a few weeks, so they can understand how it feels for these restaurant workers and owners who have done everything to remain in compliance! This is absolutely going to kill LA County’s economy. Hope they are happy with their decision to put more people out of work and more businesses at risk to close for good.
I’ve been ordering plenty of delivery these days……..the thought never crossed my mind to go to a restaurant.
Right!? Especially to a crowded “restaurant” and having to sit in the middle of traffic. No thank you. I’ll wait.
Our lives are now being dictated to by America’s number one enemy. Socialist Democrat politicians. As for their lock downs, F–k them including Sheila Kuehl, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Hilda Solis – vote these dregs out of office or recall them! They are destroying our economy and livelihoods including Gov. Nuisance. They need to all be washed out of office. They could be a featured dish at the French Laundry and served a la carte – an empty plate with nothing on it.
You could always move to Huntington Beach? Or maybe Kentucky?
Yes s/he could!
If you think Democrats are America’s #1 enemy, you’ve been drinking the orange kool-aid too long.
What restaurant does well with dead customers?
And, yes, The French Laundry excursion is inexcusable and will be remembered by voters.
Steve I hate to say it but people like you are the reason for all the panic and lockdowns. This HAS become a dictatorship and if you don’t understand it, you might want to read the Constitution!
People not wearing masks and pretending COVID is a “hoax” are the reason for all the panic and lockdowns.
I keep hearing it said that there are people who think Covid is a hoax but I never hear anyone actually say it.
Lol this is just from the past 24 hours:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/youtuber-jake-paul-believes-covid-is-a-hoaxand-i-am-fake-news
This idiot has been having parties for months and broadcasting it to his millions of impressionable fans.
He is far from being the only one.
Lockdowns don’t work.
Well said !!
Buddy I *wish* Democratic politicians were socialist. They’re not!