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LA is “on the brink” of a stay-at-home order, Garcetti says
Cases of Covid-19 have been steadily rising in recent weeks
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said the city is “on the brink” of issuing a new stay-at-home order as cases of coronavirus continue to rise in the L.A. area.
Garcetti said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN that he agreed with an L.A. Times editorial that the re-opening of businesses across the state “happened too quickly,” according to the Associated Press.
California’s state government adopted a four-phase reopening plan in late April. Counties were allowed to move through those phases if they met certain coronavirus data points such as hospitalization rates, but the decision to move forward was left to county officials.
Non-essential businesses have been closed in L.A. County since mid-March. Last week, Garcetti said that he wouldn’t hesitate to shut down all non-essential business again.
The county had allowed some retailers and then “higher-risk business” including tattoo parlors and movie theaters to reopen with some precautions by mid-June. The daily number of hospitalizations has been rising since about June 15.
On Sunday, Garcetti said that “mayors often have no control over what opens up or doesn’t, that’s either at the state or the county level,” although at least once in May he was working on a reopening plan with county officials and discussed delaying retail openings allowed by the state.
Garcetti also said that “it’s not just what’s open and closed… it’s also about what we do individually.” [AP] — Dennis Lynch