By Mary O’KEEFE

Due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, Los Angeles County will be implementing new restrictions that take effect on Friday.
LA County is tightening pandemic safeguards due to the number of COVID-19 cases more than doubling since the beginning of November with hospitalizations continuing to see significant increases with an average of 900 a day to well over 1,000 a day in the same period.
The first measures effective on Friday are:
• For non-essential businesses permitted to operate indoors – including retail stores, offices, personal care services – occupancy will be limited to 25% maximum capacity.
• The number of patrons at outdoor restaurants, breweries and wineries will be limited to 50% of maximum outdoor capacity.
• The number of customers at card rooms, 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.
Services that require either the customer or the staff to remove their face covering, such as facials and shaves, are not permitted.
Food and drinks cannot be served to customers at these establishments.
• Restaurants, breweries, wineries, bars and all other non-essential retail establishments must close from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
• Outdoor gatherings remain the only gatherings permitted, and they must include only 15 people maximum who are members of no more than three households.
If the numbers continue to rise there will be added restrictions.
These new restrictions are only the first part of possible further-reaching restrictions that are all dependent on numbers.
If the five-day average cases in LA County reaches 4,000 or more or hospitalizations are more than 1,750 per day there will be more restrictions including closing all outdoor and indoor dining with only pick-up and delivery allowed.
If the five-day average of cases grows larger than 4,500 or more or hospitalizations are more than 2,000 per day there will be more restrictions that include back to the Safer at Home Order when only essential workers are allowed to leave their home and a 10 p.m. curfew will be implemented.
“Los Angeles County is at a critical moment to save lives and curb the spread of COVID-19. I urge our residents, businesses and community leaders to heed this warning and follow these heightened safeguards so that additional restrictions do not need to be imposed,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, director of Public Health. “We are so grateful that many of our residents are wearing face coverings, keeping physically distanced and avoiding gathering with people they don’t live with, but we need everyone to do their part and follow these measures. Lives and livelihoods are at stake and our entire community will be affected by our collective action if we do the right thing.”
There is no movement for additional help for the public from the federal government via the Heroes Act, which is a stimulus relief bill that was passed by the House several months ago. The first Heroes Act, in the amount of $3.4 trillion, passed Congress in May and the second version was passed in October in the amount of $2.2 trillion. Both have been held up in the Senate without being passed. As of Wednesday Congress was back in session but many lawmakers still do not seem to agree with the details of the stimulus relief bill.