 Dear Friends —
While the holidays bring joy and happiness to many, there are many experiencing pain and suffering this season due to COVID-19.
This week, I was proud to host five events across the First District, as part of my annual Operation Gobble Gobble, to distribute turkeys and food boxes to struggling families. Through funding that my office provided, and sponsorships from several community organizations and local stakeholders, 3,400 families will be able to enjoy a warm meal on Thanksgiving.
During these trying times, it is important that we spread compassion. I am thankful for the generosity and dedication our volunteers displayed at all of our events. There is much work do to in the coming year, and working together, we can accomplish anything.
On behalf of my family, my office and the County of Los Angeles – I wish you a very happy, healthy, and blessed Thanksgiving holiday.
Sincerely,
 The continued surge in cases here in Los Angeles County should have us all deeply concerned. On Thursday, we reported over 5,000 new cases of COVID-19 - the highest number of daily new cases Los Angeles County has experienced throughout the pandemic. In an effort to protect the public health and safety of our residents, and their ability to be served in our hospitals, the following safeguards and restrictions will go into effect across Los Angeles County starting tonight:
- For non-essential businesses permitted to operate indoors—including retail stores, offices, personal care services—occupancy will be limited to 25% of the maximum occupancy allowed.
- The number of patrons at outdoor restaurants, breweries and wineries will be limited to 50% of maximum outdoor capacity.
- The number customers at cardrooms, outdoor mini-golf, go-karts and batting cages will be limited to 50% of maximum outdoor capacity.
- Services at personal care establishments may only be provided by appointment to customers wearing face coverings by staff wearing face coverings.
- Starting tonight, restaurants, breweries, wineries, bars, and all other non-essential retail establishments must close for in customer service between 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. – all these sites can be open for take-out, delivery, and pick up.
- Gatherings may only happen outdoors and include 15 people who are members of no more than 3 households.
Yesterday, the State of California issued a Health Officer Order with additional restrictions effective tomorrow, November 21 until December 21 that also apply to all Los Angeles County residents. This includes closing not just restaurants, breweries, wineries, and non-essential retail at 10:00 pm, but closing all non-essential businesses between 10:00 p.m. through 5:00 a.m. for in-person customer service. This includes card rooms, entertainment venues and activities, and sporting events. Delivery, take-out, and pick-up is still allowed.
Everyone in California must adhere to the State’s new Health Officer Order. Counties may be more restrictive than State mandates, but not less restrictive. The Los Angeles County Health Officer Order will be modified to align the closing Orders with the State’s Health Officer Order; this includes adopting the same hours of 10:00 p.m. through 5:00 a.m. for restricted operations.
 The actions we take today, tomorrow, and next week have tremendous impact on the health and well-being of many people in Los Angeles County.
We ask residents to take the following immediate measures:
- Re-think your holiday plans and cancel any plans for travel outside the region in the coming weeks.
- If you have plans to celebrate Thanksgiving with others who are not in your household, please make sure you will celebrate outdoors with only 2 other households. If you need to be indoors, this can only happen with members of your immediate household. This is particularly important since people will need to take off their face coverings while eating and drinking.
- Stay home as much as possible for the next 2-3 weeks except for accessing essential services. This is especially important for people who are older and people with serious underlying health conditions. When possible, try to use delivery services for groceries and medicines. If this isn’t possible, assign one person from your household to take care of errands and shopping.
- If you live with people that are older or have serious health conditions, wear masks and keep your distance both indoors and outdoors as much as possible. Higher risk household members should try when possible to eat by themselves and particularly avoid being in close contact with other people who have possible exposures at their jobs or in the community.
- If you are positive or a close contact of someone who is positive, please follow the public health orders to isolate or quarantine for the full amount of time; 10 days for isolating if you are positive and 14 days if you need to quarantine.
- If you have engaged in risky activities where you may have been exposed because you were in a crowd with people who weren’t wearing masks and distancing, please self-quarantine for 14 days.
For information and guidance on physical distancing, click here.
 While testing is essential to identifying people who are positive for COVID-19, being tested, even frequently, in no way prevents you from becoming infected, or protects others from you if you are an asymptomatic carrier of the virus. It only provides you information about one moment in time, and does not mean you will not become positive for the virus the next day or week. Wearing a face covering and physical distancing whenever you are out are the most important prevention tools for us to use right now.
The virus is widespread, and it is a good idea to assume that you and anyone you come into contact with could be positive, even if they do not have any symptoms. As a community and as individuals, we must commit ourselves to reducing transmission. To say many lives are at stake is not an exaggeration. Remember, #TheRiskIsReal.
For more information on testing, please click here.
 More than 1 in 4 Los Angeles County households have experienced a lack of access to affordable and nutritious food since the start of the pandemic.
Food insecurity has overwhelmingly impacted our Latinx community, women, low-income families, and those who are unemployed.
If you or your family is hungry during the holidays, Los Angeles County is here to support you. We can help you find a hot meal, locate a free food pantry or enroll you for CalFresh benefits. For more information, call 2-1-1 or click here.
Los Angeles County is helping train businesses on the implementation of COVID-19 safety protocols through a no-cost online training course called the COVID-19 Safety Compliance Certification Program (CSCCP). Once completed, business owners receive a certificate, and window seal to display on their storefront, which can reassure employees and customers alike that the business is following COVID-19 infection control and physical distancing requirements.
If you have not yet completed the CSCCP course or want to learn more about it, click here. Help support your employees, customers, and community while on the Road to Recovery.
|
