Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Los Angeles County could be reopening some more sectors of the local economy soon. We don’t know exactly when, but we know how we can get there and what we could see return.
Since August 2020, California has used a four-tier, color-coded framework to ease into reopening more businesses county by county. L.A., as you probably know, has been stuck in the most-restrictive purple tier the entire time, but things are trending in a positive direction that—if it continues—could bring the return of museums, movie theaters and indoor dining.
In order for a county to move forward, it needs to meet a few key coronavirus metrics: the seven-day average of cases per 100,000 county residents as well as the positivity rate of all Covid-19 tests. In addition, the state has equity requirements for both numbers that take into account the status of some of the hardest-hit populations (the state specifically references Latino, Black, Pacific Islander, low income and essential worker communities). To move from the purple to red tier, a county needs two straight weeks of fewer than seven cases per 100,000 people and a positivity rate of less than 8%.
L.A.’s numbers have been plummeting since mid-January, and as of February 23 (the state releases numbers weekly) the county’s positivity rate falls within the red tier range but its adjusted case rate, at 12.3, still sits just outside of it. So still purple for now. But if we meet those red requirements for two straight weeks, here’s how things would change.
Restaurants: Indoor dining would once again be allowed, with capacity capped at 25% or 100 people, whichever is fewer. Wineries and tasting rooms that don’t serve meals would still be limited to outdoor service, though.
Bars: Still closed.
Movie theaters: Could reopen indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
Museums, zoos and aquariums: Indoor areas could reopen at 25% capacity.
Gyms: Could reopen indoors at 10%, but saunas and steams rooms would have to stay closed.
Retail: Capacity would double to 50% for most stores, and full capacity for grocery stores.
Offices: Remote work would still be encouraged for anyone who can do so.
Two important notes here: It’s still ultimately up to L.A. County to decide how to proceed with individual sectors; when the state’s regional stay-at-home order ended in early 2021, L.A. County allowed outdoor dining to reopen but banned TVs and multi-household tables. And the other big point is that we’ve kind of been here before. In early fall 2020, L.A. met all of the red tier requirements for a single week but just missed on the case rate for the second week, hovered close to that threshold for the rest of the month and then spiked into a post-Thanksgiving nightmare.
So fingers crossed, L.A.—and, you know, masks up—and maybe we can set foot inside of a museum or a movie theater sometime soon.
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