Los Angeles Area Imposes New Stay-Home Order Starting Monday

(Bloomberg) -- The Greater Los Angeles area, the U.S. county with the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths, introduced a new stay-home order starting Monday through Dec. 20.

The new measures are far less stringent than those imposed in the lockdown in March. They came just two days after the county of 10 million, the most populous in the country, banned outdoor dining as cases continued climbing. The threshold of a five-day average of 4,500 cases prompted the latest move.

The order includes:

• Prohibiting public and private gatherings with those who aren’t in the same households, with exceptions made for church services and protests
• Occupancy limits in public places:
  • Essential retail at 35%, non-essential retail, including indoor malls, at 20% capacity
  • Personal care services and libraries at 20% occupancy
  • Outdoor fitness centers, museums, galleries, zoos, aquariums, outdoor botanical gardens at 50% occupancy
  • Mini-golf, batting cages, go-kart racing operating outdoors also at 50% occupancy

While beaches and public parks were shut down gradually in the previous stay-home order, these will remain open, along with golf courses, tennis courts, pools and other community areas.

“With the recent surge of Covid-19 across our community, we must take additional safety measures to reduce the risk of illness and death,” Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health, said in a statement Friday. “Acting with collective urgency right now is essential if we want to put a stop to this surge.”

The county added 24 new deaths, bringing its fatalities to 7,604. It reported 4,544 new cases, for a total of 387,793, and its five-day average to 4,751. The test positive rate rose to 10%.

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