Los Angeles County beaches and beach facilities will be closed to the public for the Fourth of July holiday weekend in an effort to prevent gatherings and crowds that may spread COVID-19, County officials announced Monday evening.
Under the modified order from the Health Officer, all beaches, beach parking lots, beach bike paths, beach facilities and beach accessways will be closed from 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 3, until 5 a.m. Monday, July 6.
In a statement to CBSLA, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department said it would enforce parking closures and traffic on Pacific Coast Highway during the holiday weekend. Trespassing in the closed areas will be punishable by fines up to $1,000.
The announcement comes as the county experiences a rise in COVID-19 case numbers. On Monday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced 2,903 new cases of COVID-19 and 22 new deaths from the virus, the single largest one-day case count since the pandemic began. The county has averaged nearly 2,000 new cases over the last seven days and the daily positivity rate has increased from lowest daily rate of 4.6% positivity in late May to 8.4% today.
