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Reopening Process After ‘Safer At Home’ Order Discussed By L.A. County Leaders

Los Angeles County leaders are discussing what is needed to reopen and what the roadmap of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic would look like.

“If we don’t see serious spikes and we actually start seeing the declines, which is what we’re really looking for, in the number of cases … we’ll feel a lot more secure that we can go ahead and slowly start implementing our recovery plan,” said the Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Barbara Ferrer. “We’re as hopeful as all of you that that day is coming relatively soon but it’s not today.”

County officials are expected to be looking at numbers of new cases as well as hospitalizations as key indicators when deciding to loosen restrictions, according to Ferrer.

L.A. County Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Hilda Solis have written two motions addressing how to end the “Safer at Home” order and ease residents back into their communities and back to work.

“The early planning and public protection of the ‘Safer at Home’ public health order included the painful decision to close non-essential businesses and limit the personal contact among loved ones,” the Supervisors wrote. “And while we continue to suffer from the effects of COVID-19, we must begin planning for the re-opening of our local economy and to enable individuals to safely reconnect, as soon as possible — knowing we must continue approaches that have worked to protect the public and slow the spread.”

The two plans include guidelines for safely reopening L.A. County and a roadmap for economic recovery.

The plan to reopen the county stresses the importance of following the recommendations from county health departments as well as state and federal guidelines.

The measure would direct the departments of Public Health, Health Services and Mental Health to provide reports within seven days detailing what measures would be needed to relax the “Safer at Home” order.

The plan also calls for the inclusion of the business community and representatives from labor groups to be involved in creating a plan for opening the economy while following safe social distancing guidelines and face mask requirements.

The County has previously established a COVID-19 relief fund to help small businesses.  It is a $28 million public-private partnership that is expected to begin deploying funds in the coming days.

“Although the Safer at Home order remains in place, Los Angeles County must put forward a comprehensive plan to revive and re-open our economy and return to full employment as we experienced before COVID-19,” the Supervisors wrote. “It is important for Los Angeles County to work directly with our business community to stimulate the local economy by evaluating any regulatory and administrative relief for businesses, workers, and local industry.”

As part of the existing plan addressing economic recovery, Barger is planning to convene an Economic Resiliency Task Force, comprised of representatives of relevant departments, cities, and leaders from industry, labor, and the business community to develop recommendations for the County to leverage public-private partnerships to improve the economy, according to the Roadmap to Economic Recovery proposal.

The task force is expected to develop a plan to maximize economic recovery after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.  It would identify financial incentives to spur economic activity, develop a plan for rapid reemployment, and identify which industries have been harmed most to target recovery efforts, among other strategies, according to officials.

Barger and Solis’ motion recommends the task force use county assets to promote neighborhood revitalization, develop affordable housing, and to incentivize development along financially impacted corridors.  It also calls for the identification of areas that could qualify for Community Development Block Grant funding from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The plan would create a permanent non-profit trust as a public-private partnership to raise private funds to address economic insecurity in L.A. County.

The trust would focus on providing micro-grants, job training, and other services to L.A. County’s economy.

The plan would also require the County Emergency Operations Center to create a plan on how and when students can safely return to school, summer programs and other activities as coronavirus restrictions loosen.

On April 14, Governor Newsom announced the indicators needed for the State to modify the statewide stay-at-home orders. Newsom broadly outlined six benchmarks that would need to be reached to lift restrictions.

The six indicators California would be looking at for modifying the statewide stay-at-home order are; the ability to monitor and protect communities through testing, adequately prevent infection in people who are at risk, hospital and health systems ability to handle surges, development of COVID-19 therapeutic medicine, for businesses, schools, and child care facilities to support physical distancing, and having a plan in place to reinstitute stay-at-home orders if necessary.

“At this time, there is no precise timeline for modifying the stay-at-home order, and these six indicators will serve as the framework for making that decision,” Newsom said.


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Reopening Process After ‘Safer At Home’ Order Discussed By L.A. County Leaders

3 comments

  1. Ms. Barger is delusional if she thinks the world after the pandemic will be a continuation of the past. People have had lots of time to think. They have a better idea of what’s valuable. There will be a new way of life.

  2. I sure hope our leaders aren’t going to be STUPID and open everywhere up too quickly only to end up back at square one!! The history books won’t be kind to them, and SO many more will die! Let’s hope, for once, that they do something RIGHT for a change! Unfortunately, it looks like they will screw this up like everything else they get their grubby hands on……. but, time will tell, won’t it?

    • Miss angry how do we get you to leave lol, wasn’t that your kind words you expressed? atleast the gavonor had the sense to tell everyone to get a mask out there. it might be the smartest thing he’s ever said showing he has more common sense than our CDC and the health department now that’s sad, we might be in big trouble.

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About Elliott Keegan