LA County cited 150 businesses for Covid violations since Black Friday, including 6 malls

Los Angeles County health officials have cited six malls — some of them multiple times — for violating coronavirus safety protocols since Black Friday. In all, more than 150 businesses countywide have broken Covid rules since Dec. 1.

Craig Realty’s Citadel Outlets in Commerce was cited on four different occasions from late November to mid-December, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Rick Caruso’s Grove mall in Fairfax was cited twice. The Americana at Brand in Glendale, the Palisades Village in Pacific Palisades, Burbank Town Center, and Waterside at Marina del Rey were each cited once, the paper noted.

L.A. health officials have issued 526 citations to businesses for Covid violations since the end of August, including 157 since Dec. 1, at which point both state and county stay-at-home orders were in effect to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Those citations can include a failure to maintain capacity limits and not enforcing social distancing, according to the Times. Citations can lead to fines.

Countywide, the seven-day average rate of positive tests more than doubled from late November to late December, but has since fallen somewhat.

Some mall owners strongly pushed the county to allow them to reopen this fall, including Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, claiming the restrictions on malls were arbitrary.

Overall, restaurants account for the largest share of violations since August with 160 of the 526. Some have been cited multiple times. Gyms have received 123 and places of worship have received 87 violations. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch