Video: Massive Crowds Gather At Venice Beach

VENICE, CA — A video this weekend in Venice shows large groups of people, many without face coverings, gathering along the boardwalk. It's even caught Chrissy Teigan's attention.

Comic and entertainment manager Dante shot the video about 8 p.m. Saturday and said the response hasn't been completely positive, he told Patch.

"People are giving me shit about being out," Dante told Patch.

After posting the video, which has nearly one million views on Twitter as of Tuesday, people asked what he was doing there and why he wasn't home.

I don’t get it. Aren’t you like, also out there? https://t.co/0DlS1ne4JI
— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) May 24, 2020

But people might not know the whole story, he told Patch. Between cooking for family members and caregivers, Dante and his wife wanted to take a drive.

"My wife and I, we own a company called Golden Artists Entertainment," he told Patch. "We also have her father who has Alzheimer’s living with us. I have a 16-year-old daughter. And we just needed a break, we hadn’t gone anywhere."

"All we wanted to do was drive up the coast and come home," Dante told Patch.

Then they needed to make a bathroom stop and they were hungry.

"We pull into Santa Monica, every hotel is closed, unless you’re a guest," Dante said. "So she had to pee, we pulled over and paid $20 and I wasn’t looking at people, I’m looking at the beach."

"Some girl yelled 'empanadas,' and my wife said 'Honey, no one but us is wearing a mask.'"

They decided to wait and leave.

"Why would it be packed here? It would have been so nice if I pulled up and everybody was wearing masks," Dante told Patch.

Los Angeles County beaches reopened for active use, along with bike paths, earlier this month.

More than two dozen more deaths from the coronavirus were confirmed Tuesday in Los Angeles County, which also reported its highest single-day total of new COVID-19 cases, although officials said a backlog in test results contributed to the large jump.

The 27 new deaths reported by the county, plus two more reported Tuesday afternoon by health officials in Long Beach, brought the county's total number of fatalities from the virus to 2,145.

The county reported 1,843 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, while Long Beach and Pasadena combined to add 53 more, raising the countywide total to 47,875.

Of the county's overall deaths, 47% have occurred at skilled nursing facilities, which have been a focal point of the pandemic in the county. A total of 93% of the people who have died in the county from COVID-19 had underlying health conditions.

For the 1,974 deaths for which ethnic data was available, 39% were Latinx, 29% were white, 17% were Asian, 12% were black and 1% were Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

The numbers were announced following a holiday weekend that saw thousands of people flocking to beaches, hiking trails and other recreation facilities, sparking concerns about residents' willingness to continue adhering to restrictions such as social distancing and wearing face coverings.

Eaton Canyon was closed to hikers on Memorial Day because too many people showed up and failed to follow county health guidelines, officials said.

Some beach parking lots were reopened in Los Angeles County over the weekend and retail businesses inside enclosed shopping malls were allowed to reopen with curbside pickup only.

The county on Thursday reopened its 22-mile bike path that stretches from Pacific Palisades to Torrance.

County officials warned anyone heading to the beach that face coverings are mandatory when not in the water. The active-use restriction also forbids sunbathing on the sand, meaning chairs, umbrellas, canopies and coolers are still barred—although such items were easy to spot at some beach areas. Massive crowds were also spotted in some areas, most notably Venice Beach, and large numbers of people were spotted without face coverings.

Such images caught the attention of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who again warned residents that the virus has not gone away.

He warned there is a danger "that we go back to some sense of normalcy with amnesia, that we forget the past, we forget the fact that we're meeting a mark of shame in this country, that 100,000 souls have lost their lives, that this pandemic continues, that we're seeing positive numbers of cases increase, not decrease.

"Even though we're seeing stability here in the state of California and positivity rates holding strong, that doesn't mean this thing's behind us and we're out of the woods yet. Quite the contrary."

Despite the concerns, Newsom on Tuesday cleared the way for many counties in the state to open barbershops and hair salons, with safety protocols. Los Angeles County, however, has not yet been granted a variance from the state that would allow it to open businesses such as dine-in restaurants. Newsom said he is working with the county on a proposal to allow some individual cities to open more businesses.

Los Angeles County is still home to about half of the state's coronavirus cases and deaths.

- City News Service and Patch Staffer Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

See more:

• Culver City, Sherman Oaks Ralphs Workers Die From COVID-19
• LA Sees Largest Coronavirus Spike As Stealth Spreaders Pose Risk
• Dodger Stadium Is Now County's Largest Coronavirus Testing Center