L.A. County Issues New Safer at Home Order

Courtesy illustration / LA County

Additional businesses allowed to reopen

A new Health Officer Order was issued Wednesday that replaces the previous Health Officer Order and allows for lower-risk businesses and select recreational facilities and beaches to reopen in L.A. County.

All retailers that are not located in an indoor mall or shopping center are able to reopen for curbside, door-side, outside pickup, or delivery only. The public is not allowed to go inside. Manufacturing and logistic businesses that supply retail businesses may also reopen.

Before retail businesses, manufacturing and logistic businesses reopen, they are required to prepare, implement and post their plan for adhering to directives including distancing and infection control practices that protect both employees and customers.

Specific higher-risk businesses remain closed and the order prohibits public and private gatherings of any number of people occurring outside a single household or living unit.

Beaches reopened Wednesday for active recreation including running, walking, swimming and surfing. However, group sports and activities like picnicking and sunbathing are not permitted, and parking lots, bike paths, piers, and boardwalks, remain closed. 

Select recreational facilities including tennis and pickleball courts, equestrian centers, BMX bike areas, trap, and skeet/archery ranges, model airplanes, and community gardens can also reopen beginning May 15 with restrictions.

Local public entities may, if they want to, temporarily close certain street or areas to automobile traffic to allow for increased space for people to engage in recreational activity permitted by the order.

As L.A. County remains the epicenter of infections and deaths in the state, the County has chosen to issue an order that is more restrictive than the state guidelines set forth by Governor Gavin Newsom. Similarly, local jurisdictions may choose to make their orders more restrictive than the County’s.

If the number of hospitalizations, cases, and deaths become a point of concern, the County may reverse course and once again impose more restrictive orders. To keep these numbers low and gradually proceed to loosen restrictions in accordance with the County’s recovery plan, public health officials emphasize that everyone must continue to practice physical distancing of at least six feet apart and wear a clean cloth face covering that securely covers both the nose and mouth when around people outside of one’s household.

Unlike the previous order, which was set to expire on May 15, this new order has no set expiration date; instead, health officials will assess the activities allowed by this order on an ongoing basis and modify this order as they deem appropriate.

Currently, L.A. County is in stage two of the five-stage Roadmap to Recovery  and until the final stage five is reached, health orders and directives will continue to ensure that the spread of COVID-19  is slowed to prevent an overwhelming surge of COVID-19 cases at healthcare facilities.

To read the complete order, click here.

More from Arcadia Weekly