Los Angeles County will ease its restrictions on coronavirus on Monday, joining Orange County by adopting weaker regulations now that both are in the orange level of the state’s monitoring system.
Restrictions are set to be relaxed immediately after midnight. Here’s what it means.
- Cinemas, restaurants, churches, museums, zoos and aquariums can go from 25% to 50% of capacity.
- Gymnastics capacity will be increased from 10% to 25%.
- Card rooms and family entertainment centers can resume indoor operations at 25% capacity.
The county will continue to apply certain rules that are stricter than the state allows. In particular, non-food bars – which are only allowed to reopen outdoors – will only be able to operate between 11:30 and 22:00, with a required distance of 8 feet between outdoor dining.
And while state guidelines allow for the lifting of all capacity restrictions for orange retail units, Los Angeles County will impose a 75% cap on grocery stores and other retail operations, while strongly recommending that remains at 50% capacity until April 15 until you allow time for more workers to be vaccinated.
County indicators continued to move in the right direction on Sunday, with 535 new cases of COVID-19 and only three additional deaths reported, although health officials said fewer deaths could reflect weekend delays.
The number of coronavirus patients in county hospitals increased from 590 on Saturday to 591, according to state figures. The number of patients in intensive care decreased from 158 to 151.
Plan your vaccine: how and where to get vaccinated.
Sunday’s numbers brought the county’s totals to 1,222,114 cases and 23,275 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Although most of the orange rules will not take effect until Monday, the rules for theme parks and venues for outdoor outdoor events – such as Dodger Stadium – came into force on Thursday. These rules allowed theme parks to open with 25% of capacity, and outdoor venues to open with 33% of capacity.
Breweries and wineries will be able to offer indoor services at 25% capacity from Monday. Breweries, wineries, bars and restaurants will be allowed to open their TVs outdoors, but live entertainment is prohibited.
California COVID-19 Vaccinations
The map tracks the number of doses administered by a beneficiary’s county of residence, according to the California Department of Public Health.