Long Beach and Santa Barbara are reopening restaurants for outdoor dining. But what about restaurants in other parts of LA County?
The LA County Board of Supervisors submitted what’s called a “variance” application to the state on Wednesday, pushing for more openings, including dine-in restaurants.
“We decided to ask the governor to let us open more things sooner than later,” says LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn. “All of us are concerned about if the decisions we're making will have a bad outcome in terms of increased positive cases of coronavirus. … But we’ve tried to do this in a way that balances public safety with reopening our economy.”
If the plan is approved, barbershops, hair salons and dine-in restaurants could reopen within days, abiding by strict social distancing guidelines and safety measures currently being drafted by county officials.
“If the governor allows us this variance so that dining can happen this weekend, we are the ones that may say we’re only going to allow you to have 30% capacity. We’re going to make sure that all your wait staff is wearing shields,” says Hahn. “Those are the guidelines the county is writing up as we speak.”
LA County remains the viral hotspot of California, despite the rate of hospitalizations going down.