Residents in the state of California are being asked to stay home this week, just in time for Thanksgiving. Travelers who ignore the warning in Los Angeles will be slapped with a fine, according to the Los Angeles Times.
As of Monday (Nov. 23), Los Angeles County reached a record-high number of daily coronavirus cases, with the region surpassing the threshold set by officials at which a stay-at-home lockdown order would take effect.
There are a total of 352,138 cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County as of November 22, according to the LA County Public Health Department COVID-19 Surveillance Dashboard. The death toll had reached 7,045.
On Sunday there were 1,473 hospitalizations. On Monday in LA County alone there were more than 6,100 new cases of the virus. Statewide, there were more than 20,000 new cases of the coronavirus – another record-breaker.
The stay-at-home order being contemplated would permit only essential workers and those procuring essential services to leave their homes, but officials said they were working on a more flexible possibility than the one issued in March.
Officials are set to begin with shutting down outdoor dining as of Wednesday night. Takeout and delivery will continue. Most non-essential activity outside the home from 10 pm to 5 am is already banned until December 21 in California’s purple-coded counties.
LA County director of public health Barbara Ferrer has called the latest virus spikes “alarming.” The five-member Board of Supervisors, she said, was set to discuss the stay-at-home order at its meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 24).
Meanwhile, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said he is supporting a tougher approach, preferring not to “wait till it gets to 10, 15, 20,000 cases and then suddenly say, ‘We’re shutting down’ and now we’re shut down for two or three months?”