Statement on Restaurant Ruling

Earlier this week, a Superior Court judge issued a ruling that, in our opinion, creates at a minimum confusion for LA County residents. Although the Court ruled that the suspension of outdoor dining issued through the County Health Officer Order ends on December 16, because LA County is also under the State’s Regional Stay at Home Order, outdoor dining at restaurants will remain suspended through at least December 27. The ruling incorrectly analyzed Public Health’s decision-making process that went into its November 25 Order, which included a temporary suspension of outdoor dining at restaurants and a return to takeout and delivery only. Public Health professionals always, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, have the obligation to create effective interventions that prevent and control the spread of communicable disease. When making its Order, Public Health knew that new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations within the County were beginning to surge. On November 20, the daily 7-day average for cases was 4,130 and only 1,238 COVID-19 positive persons were hospitalized. Now the daily 7-day average for cases is at 10,284 and hospitalizations are at 3,624. The regional adult Intensive Care Unit available capacity is presently just 7.7%.

By mid-November, LA County Public Health needed to take immediate action. Because COVID-19 is transmitted through contact with infectious people, who could be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic, whether indoors or outdoors, LA County Public Health ordered on a population-wide basis that people stay at home as much as possible, places where people encounter each other, like stores, decompress, and activities where people are in close proximity for extended periods of time without wearing a mask, such as eating/drinking at restaurants and personal care services that require customers to remove their face coverings, be suspended. This is the scientific and common sense approach to suppress transmission of the COVID-19 virus. The State’s Regional Stay At Home Order issued on December 6 also temporarily suspended outdoor dining. Right now, with the amount of community transmission of COVID-19, the transmission risk presented by outdoor dining at a table with others is simply too high and will result in additional cases that the hospital system soon will not be able to absorb. Public Health expects the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations to quickly exceed 4,000.

Unfortunately, the decision to require people to stay at home was critically necessary in order to keep hospital operations available for both COVID and non-COVID patients. Restaurants have been deemed essential and have been open with safety modifications since the beginning of this pandemic. We also recognize the modifications that all community members and businesses, including restaurants, have needed to make during the pandemic. We encourage LA County residents to support our restaurants by routinely ordering food for takeout and delivery, which presents less risk to customers and employees. We need to continue to work together while we wait for the mass distribution of the vaccine.

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