L.A. County Orders Bars to Close following Gov’s Orders and Sharp Rise in Infections and Hospitalizations

On June 28, the Los Angeles County Health Officer Order was amended to require that all bars, breweries, brew pubs, pubs, wineries and tasting rooms in L.A. County close unless they are offering sit-down dine-in meals. This includes closing bar areas in restaurants.

The re-closing of bars follows a sharp rise in new cases and hospitalizations and Gov. Gavin Newsome’s order this past Sunday. The timing of these increases is in line with the reopening of key sectors, including bars, which are places where people remove their face covering to drink while socializing with people not in their households.

“While it’s disappointing to take a step back on our economic recovery journey, it’s critical that we protect the health of our residents and protect the capacity in our healthcare system,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “I implore that our residents and businesses follow the Public Health directives that will keep us healthy, safe and on the pathway to recovery. Otherwise, we are quickly moving toward overwhelming our healthcare system and seeing even more devastating illness and death.”

The State-mandated closing comes as the Department of Public Health is reporting significant increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations and the testing positivity rate.

There are 1,717 people currently hospitalized, higher than the 1,350 to 1,450 daily hospitalizations seen in recent weeks. Testing results are available for over 1,056,000 individuals, with 9% of people testing positive. The cumulative positivity rate has increased from 8% to 9%, and the 7-day average of the daily positivity rate has increased from 5.8% two weeks ago to 8.7% today.

Today, Public Health has confirmed 20 new deaths and 2,542 new cases of 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). Fifteen people who died were over the age of 65 years old, four people who died were between the ages of 41 and 65 years old, and one person who died was between the ages of 18 and 40 years old. Thirteen people had underlying health conditions including 10 people over the age of 65 years old and three people between the ages of 41 to 65 years old.

To date, Public Health has identified 97,894 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of LA County, and a total of 3,305 deaths. Ninety-four percent of people who died had underlying health conditions. Of those who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 3,076 people (99 percent of the cases reported by Public Health); 43% of deaths occurred among Latinx residents, 27% among white residents, 17% among Asian residents, 11% among African American residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 1% among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, 19 cases reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.