City Of West Hollywood Coronaviru Update: Coronavirus Cases Are Surging; Los Angeles County To Implement Tighter Safeguards And Restrictions

Press release from the City of West Hollywood:

November 18, 2020

City Of West Hollywood COVID-19 Update: Coronavirus Cases Are Surging; Los Angeles County To Implement Tighter Safeguards And Restrictions To Curb COVID-19 Spread

The City of West Hollywood is making every effort to respond to community needs during the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency.

The City of West Hollywood is getting the word out that the State of California and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are reporting an alarming surge in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. Public Health officials also report that “Coronavirus Fatigue” may translate to apathy and resistance to health and safety warnings, such as recommendations for wearing face coverings and maintaining social distancing and COVID-19 safety protocols. In the State of California, COVID-19-related hospitalizations have jumped by 36 percent and the number of coronavirus-infected ICU patients is up by 37 percent during the past week.

Effective Friday, November 20, 2020, Los Angeles County has announced that it will tighten safeguards and restrictions as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to increase significantly. These safeguards and restrictions are aimed at protecting the public health and safety of community members and ensuring the capacity to be effectively treated in the region’s hospitals.

The first Los Angeles County measures, effective this Friday, include:

• For non-essential businesses permitted to operate indoors — including retail stores, offices, and personal care services — occupancy will be limited to 25 percent maximum capacity.
• The number of patrons at outdoor restaurants, breweries, and wineries will be limited to 50 percent maximum outdoor capacity.
• Services at personal care establishments may only be provided by appointment to customers wearing face coverings by staff wearing face coverings.

• Services that require either the customer or the staff to remove their face covering, such as facials and shaves, are not permitted.
• Food and drinks cannot be served at these establishments to customers.

• Restaurants, breweries, wineries, bars, and all other non-essential retail establishments mustclose from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
• Outdoor gatherings remain the only gatherings permitted, and they must only include 15 people maximum who are members of no more than 3 households. Indoor gatherings with people outside of the immediate household are not permitted.

At this time, the County is reporting 2,884 cases as the five-day average and 1,126 hospitalized patients. The County continues to anticipate the potential continued surge of cases and hospitalizations. The County has established thresholds for additional actions if cases or hospitalizations continue to increase.

If the five-day average of cases in the County becomes 4,000 or more or hospitalizations are more than 1,750 per day, the following restriction will be added by Los Angeles County:

• Outdoor and indoor dining at restaurants, breweries, wineries, and bars will be prohibited and these businesses will only be able to offer pick-up and delivery. Businesses in this sector are being notified via email by DPH, which will work with them to ensure a smooth transition.

If the five-day average of cases in the County becomes 4,500 or more or hospitalizations are more than 2,000 per day, the following restriction will be added by Los Angeles County:

• A Safer at Home Order will be instituted for three weeks. The Order would only allow essential workers and those securing essential services to leave their homes.
• A 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew would be mandated, with essential workers exempt.

“COVID-19 cases are rising sharply and we can’t afford to let our guard down. This is a critical time for all of us to use caution and to take preventive action,” said City of West Hollywood Mayor Lindsey P. Horvath. “Gatherings should be avoided as much as possible. If separate households must gather, please follow LA County guidelines to do so only outdoors and only for short periods of time and use masks, distancing, and sanitization. Little things like wearing a mask, keeping a six-foot distance, and frequent hand-washing add up to making a huge impact on reducing community spread of COVID-19. We’ve all got to do whatever it takes to get this surge under control as we head into the winter months.”

Thanksgiving and upcoming holidays present enormous challenges for Public Health officials, who are urging people to stay home and stay in their households. Public Health officials are concerned about the potential for an even higher rise in positive infections and hospitalizations in the weeks ahead as people gather for holiday celebrations, even as experts strongly encourage people to stay safe at home.

Public Health officials at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are concerned that people who are not exhibiting symptoms may unknowingly infect others including parents, grandparents, and friends and family who have underlying health conditions and who are at greater risk for serious illness and death.

As California surpassed one million COVID-19 cases last week and as the rate of infections continued to rise across the country, the State of California issued a Travel Advisory urging Californians to stay home or in the region and to avoid non-essential travel to other states or countries. The Travel Advisory additionally urges visitors entering California or returning home from travel outside California to self-quarantine to slow the spread of COVID-19. The travel advisory urges against non-essential out-of-state travel, and asks people to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving from another state or country.

The State of California Travel Advisory also recommends that individuals limit their interactions to their immediate households and urges people only to travel for essential duties, defined as travel for work and study, critical infrastructure support, economic services and supply chains, health, immediate medical care, and safety and security.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a new statement that wearing a face covering helps to protect the wearer, not just those around them, from coronavirus transmission noting that masks act as “source control” to block virus particles exhaled by the wearer and provide “filtration for personal protection” by blocking incoming infectious droplets from others. The new CDC guidance cites a number of studies showing that face coverings reduce the risk of transmitting or catching the virus by more than 70 percent in various instances. The CDC has face covering guidance on its website.

A recent UCLA study found that even a simple cloth mask provides significant protections against COVID-19 transmission, reducing the spread of respiratory droplets by as much as 77 percent and the combination of face shield and cloth mask improved the particle reduction to 89 percent. The study was published in the current edition of the peer-reviewed journal Aerosol Science and Technology, and can be viewed here.

The City of West Hollywood has had a mandatory face-covering requirement in effect since late May 2020 and has been promoting a Cover That Face, Maintain Your Space message with its campaign of the same name, featuring graphics with brightly colored green, blue, and violet backgrounds and a diverse collection of illustrated characters embracing safe, responsible behaviors. Street banners and signs remain on display on lamp poles and public medians throughout the City of West Hollywood along commercial corridors.

To attempt to reach mask-resistant individuals, the City also launched a social media-based video series of 15-second videos called “Masks Are … ” with each video carrying the blunt message: “Wear a F*****g Mask!” The series launched with four short PSA videos on the City’s WeHoTV YouTube Channel including Masks Are Badass, Masks Are Sexy, Masks Are Smoookin’, and Masks Are Tasty. Additional videos will be uploaded and promoted as they are produced. The video series is intentionally edgy in nature and each video is optimized to capture the attention of its mostly younger target audience and promote social media sharing.

The City of West Hollywood has declared a local emergency in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. When in public, community members should maintain your space with social (physical) distancing of at least six feet, and cover your face. Public Health officials recommend that everyone continue to follow physical distancing and infection control directives and wear a clean face covering that securely covers both your nose and mouth when in contact with other people not in your household.

The City encourages residents to remain home as much as is practical and limit close contact with others outside of a household. Additionally, people 65 years old or older and all people of any age with underlying health conditions should remain at home whenever possible; people in these categories should only leave their residences to seek medical care, exercise, or obtain food or other necessities.

West Hollywood City Hall is currently closed to the public and has suspended all in-person transactions. Most public City buildings, playgrounds, and facilities remain closed. City Hall remains accessible for business and essential services with transactions to be conducted by phone (323) 848-6400 and via the City’s website at www.weho.org.

The City of West Hollywood coronavirus updates are available at www.weho.org/coronavirus and the City encourages community members to follow @wehocity on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and turn on notifications for up-to-date information regarding details in the City of West Hollywood.

To view essential-business City meetings, tune in to WeHoTV at:

• www.weho.org/wehotv

Meetings can also be accessed via:

• www.youtube.com/wehotv
• Spectrum Channel 10 (in West Hollywood)
• SmartTV Apps: AndroidTV; AppleTV; FireTV; and Roku

For notifications by email, subscribe to the City’s E-Notifications at www.weho.org/email. Visit the City’s event and meetings calendar at www.weho.org/calendar and news archive at www.weho.org/news. To receive urgent updates to your phone by text and to your email, text your ZIP code to 888-777.

For updates and information about the current numbers of COVID-19 cases in the United States and in Los Angeles County, the spread of the virus, severity, treatments, precautions, and other important public health information in multiple languages, please visit websites for:

• Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html

For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, please contact the LA County Department of Public Health Chief Communications Officer, Carl A. Kemp, at (213) 240-8144 or media@ph.lacounty.gov.

For reporters and members of the media seeking additional information about the City of West Hollywood, please contact the City of West Hollywood’s Public Information Officer, Sheri A. Lunn, at (323) 848-6391 or slunn@weho.org.

This press release was produced by the City of West Hollywood. The views expressed here are the author’s own.