TOPLINE
The stay-at-home orders, initially issued in March and still in place in Los Angeles, are fully expected to be extended for the next three months, according to the county’s public health director, Barbara Ferrer.
People visit Santa Monica Beach in Santa Monica, California on May 11, 2020, despite a sign … [+] mentioning beach closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. – Los Angeles County will reopen beaches on Wednesday May 13 to limited active use, requiring social distancing while not allowing for sunbathers or picnics as parking lots remain closed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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KEY FACTS
More than 240,000 of L.A. County’s 10 million residents have been checked for the virus and roughly 12% — more than 32,000 — have tested positive.
Confirmed cases and deaths in Los Angeles have continued to rise, while other regions in California have seen a decline.
On Monday, the county reported that 566 people tested positive for the virus, with 39 fatalities, bringing the death toll to 1,570.
L.A. County’s death count accounts for more than 50% of the state’s total (statewide, there have been 69,417 confirmed cases, with 2,789 deaths).
All county residents, regardless of symptoms, are allowed to be tested for free at sites run by the city Los Angeles, a first for a major U.S. city.
County officials have said they plan to reopen beaches as early as Wednesday morning, albeit with restrictions, including closed parking lots, piers and boardwalks.
Crucial quote:
“Our hope is that by using the data, we’d be able to slowly lift restrictions over the next three months,” Ferrer, the county’s top public health official, said during a Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday. She added that stay-at-home orders would only be amended if there was a “dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand.”
Key background
Earlier on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee via videoconference that the U.S. does not have the coronavirus outbreak “completely under control,” and that the national death toll is “likely higher” than the reported total of 80,000. Fauci also addressed the feasibility of students potentially returning to college campuses in August (a significant concern in Los Angeles), stating, “the idea of having treatments available, or a vaccine, to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be something of a bit of a bridge too far.”
Further reading
