Via The Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Today: A new road map to reopening. Excerpt:
Over the last few months, the pandemic has started to feel like a long car ride, replete with impatient passengers and unexpected delays. The journey is all the more tiring because it’s still unclear exactly where we’re headed and when we’ll finally arrive. Even for the most patient among us, it’s hard to resist asking: Are we there yet?
This frustration has been particularly acute in California, where fast action against the disease put the state ahead for a time, but then a botched reopening in early summer erased that progress.
Now, in late August, there’s still no reliable treatment, and a vaccine remains months away. But Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday mapped out the next steps of the journey, with a new plan to reopen more parts of the economy — more cautiously than he did last time.
Consider how things could play out in Los Angeles County, for example. The county currently falls into the most restrictive reopening tier defined by Newsom, meaning that indoor operations are prohibited for many businesses, including restaurants, bars, nail salons and gyms.
To allow more businesses to unlock their doors, the county would have to see fewer than 8% of all coronavirus tests administered coming back positive, as well as fewer than 7 new cases per 100,000 residents each day — for two weeks straight. (Currently, the county’s positivity rate meets the threshold at 5%, but it has logged about 13 new cases per 100,000 residents each day.) Once L.A. County satisfies these benchmarks, indoor operations would be allowed for museums, nail salons, churches, movie theaters, gyms, restaurants and other establishments.
If all goes well for another three weeks and the rates drop even lower, the county could reopen the next set of shut-down businesses — wineries, bowling alleys and offices as well as bars that seat patrons outdoors.
Even with the best intentions, reopenings are a challenge. Some experts fear that college students and essential workers will be the victims of the next big wave of coronavirus cases in California as schools and businesses reopen this fall. At USC, outbreaks among students have been linked not to crowded lecture halls or large parties but to small, indoor gatherings for study groups or game nights.
