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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said another stay-at-home order could be on its way for city residents and businesses, as the surrounding county reports an ongoing rise in COVID-19 infections.
Garcetti addressed the local government's virus response strategies during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning. The mayor told host Jake Tapper that Los Angeles could be "on the brink" of reissuing a stay-at-home order due to its high concentration of cases.
Garcetti also agreed with criticisms recently published in the Los Angeles Times, which connected the outbreak resurgence to premature reopening procedures. Still, whether to effect another stay-at-home order is not entirely his decision.
"As I've told people over the last week...mayors often have no control over what opens up and doesn't. That's either at a state or county level," Garcetti explained.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says that they are on the “brink” of issuing another stay-at-home order as coronavirus cases increase in the city #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/RoV5GIOnBm
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 19, 2020
He went on to underscore the importance of individual responsibility in the absence of formal county requirements.
"It's not just what's opened and closed. It's also about what we do individually. It's about the people who are getting together outside of their households with people they might know. It might be their extended family, it might be friends. They might think because they got a test two weeks ago that it's OK, but it's not," the mayor continued. "We have to be as vigilant right now as we were the first day...bring 100 percent of our strength the way we did the first or second month."
California reopened businesses across most industry sectors throughout May and June, under the terms of Governor Gavin Newsom's phased economic recovery plan. Although Los Angeles County--which has consistently reported the state's highest incidence of COVID-19--entered reopening phases along a slightly protracted timeline, the majority of its business establishments and public areas resumed functioning by mid-June.
L.A. County was one of 19 California jurisdictions where most businesses temporarily suspended indoor operations on July 1, after Newsom issued an order requiring them to do so. Regulations imposed by the order, which targeted California regions hit particularly hard by virus transmission, are scheduled to lift this week.
Similar to California's substantial spike in cases, hospitalizations and fatalities related to the novel coronavirus, L.A. County health officials confirmed a steep rise in local outbreak statistics throughout June and July. The L.A. County Department of Public Health's data shows the rate of infections diagnosed daily increased in July compared to the previous month, even with Newsom's temporary restrictions in place.
Newsweek reached out to Garcetti, the L.A. County Public Information Office, and L.A. County Department of Public Health for comments, but did not receive replies in time for publication.
More than 375,000 people have tested positive for the novel virus across California since the pandemic began, according to the state health department's latest report, updated on Saturday. Close to 150,500 of the state's cases were identified within L.A. County.
