Despite reporting another uptick in daily coronavirus cases and an upward trend in the community transmission rate of the virus, Los Angeles County officials Wednesday cleared the way for nail salons to resume indoor operations and for indoor shopping malls to reopen.
The salons and malls will be both be restricted to 25% of capacity, and public health Director Barbara Ferrer encouraged nail salon operators to continue offering services outdoors. She said food courts at indoor shopping malls will remain closed. The exact dates when the facilities will be allowed to reopen was not immediately determined, but Ferrer said it would be in the next 10 days.
Outdoor playgrounds, which have been off limits during the pandemic, can also reopen, Ferrer said, but only at the discretion of individual cities in which they are located. Anyone over age 2 will be required to wear a face covering at the playgrounds, and no eating or drinking will be permitted.
The re-openings were announced one day after the county Board of Supervisors agreed to open a waiver process for schools to offer in-person instruction for students in pre-kindergarten through 2nd grade, and voted to reopen craft breweries, wineries and outdoor card rooms.
The openings come despite what Ferrer described as a “small increase” in daily coronavirus case numbers when compared to the early part of September. She said the increase “may either reflect lower testing numbers at the beginning of the month, or they may reflect the fact that we’re starting to see some small increases in community transmission.”
She noted that testing dipped earlier in the month when the region was hit with a severe heat wave that forced the closure of some testing centers. Fires that fouled the air with smoke also forced some centers to temporarily close.
“This may in fact help explain some of the increases that we just saw in mid-September, but we’re going to need to wait and see what we have for case counts over the next week or so,” Ferrer said.
Ferrer said Monday that the county appeared to have avoided a feared post-Labor Day spike in cases, and she did not change that assessment based on the recent uptick in cases.
The county’s recent positivity rate of people who are tested for the virus has been steadily dropping, now averaging 2.8%. Hospitalizations have also been falling steadily, dropping from about 2,200 a day in July to roughly 740 as of last week.
The county’s health services director, Dr. Christina Ghaly, said the county’s virus transmission rate — the average number of people a coronavirus patient infects with the illness — has seen a slight but steady rise over the last six weeks, although it dipped slightly Wednesday to reach 1.0. The rate was 1.02 last week, well above the 0.86 rate of mid-August.
When the rate is below 1.0, case numbers invariably begin to decrease across the county, but when it rises to 1.0 or higher, cases are likely to increase.
Ghaly said the rise or fall of the rate depends on residents’ adherence to basic health requirements, such as wearing face coverings, maintaining social distance and practicing personal hygiene such as frequent hand washing.
“When we’re not following those basic health measures, as we’ve seen again and again, that … (transmission rate) goes up and that’s what threatens the possibility of reopening for us all,” she said.
Reliance on residents’ adherence to health restrictions plays a major role in the decision to reopen more businesses. Despite the recent increase in cases and the transmission rate, Ferrer said the county was prepared to move ahead with the additional business re-openings — but health officials are hoping business owners and customers will continue to take precautions.
“We have determined that with really good adherence — and this is critical — to the directives that are in place, these are activities that we think can be done with a lot of safety,” Ferrer said. “And if they’re done with a lot of safety, we’re hopeful that we won’t see a big surge in cases. It’s pretty easy to know when things aren’t going well because our cases tend to increase within a couple of weeks.”
The county reported another 30 coronavirus-related deaths on Wednesday, although two of those deaths were actually announced Tuesday by health officials in Long Beach and Pasadena. Pasadena announced one additional death Wednesday. The new deaths lifted the countywide number since the start of the pandemic to 6,577.
Ferrer also announced another 1,063 cases of the virus, while Long Beach officials added 50 more and Pasadena reported 12, raising the cumulative total to 270,361.
There were 734 people hospitalized in the county — excluding Long Beach and Pasadena — as of Wednesday, up from 714 on Tuesday and from 663 on Monday.
As of today, the confirmed infections in West Hollywood has increased by two to a total of 568. The number of people in West Hollywood who have died of COVID-19 related illnesses as of today remains at five.
In Beverly Hills, the number of confirmed infections as of today is 694. That is a reduction of one from yesterday’s account, which likely is a result of a mistake in the address attributed to one of those in yesterday’s count. The number of COVID-19 related deaths in Beverly Hills as of today was 12. The number of COVID-19 infection confirmed among Culver City residents as of today has increased by four to 390. The number of deaths as of today remains at 29. The Health Department has reported seven newly confirmed infections in Hollywood, bringing its total to 1,221. The number of deaths remains at14. The Melrose neighborhoods latest count is up by eight to 1,944. The number of COVID-19 related deaths has increased by one to 71.
Public Health has a dedicated call line for confirmed cases of COVID-19. If you are positive for COVID-19 and have not yet connected with a public health specialist or need more information on services, call toll-free at 1 (833) 540-0473. Residents who do not have COVID-19 can continue to call 211 for resources or more information.
One way the virus can be transmitted is through a cough, a sneeze or even through air that comes from the mouth when someone talks. For that reason, residents must wear face coverings when out in public and can be cited for not doing so. The citations come with a $250 fine and a $50 administrative fee.
West Hollywood residents with questions about the COVID-19 pandemic or who are looking for resources to deal with it can find answers on the City of West Hollywood’s website. Here is a list of links to sections about particular subjects and issues:
We are going to endure a cycle of openings and closures and increasing illness and deaths for the rest of our lives
Please do gyms next
No way. Gyms are already a Petri dish of filth, bacteria, germs and disease
Yet there have been no COVID outbreaks related to gyms in 7 month now.