Long Beach city is now amending “Safer-at-home” orders for outside areas and businesses following the COVID-19 pandemic, but cannot speed-up the process even with new guidelines set by Gov. Gavin Newsom May 18.
Recently, residents were able to enjoy re-opened bike trails, hiking paths, and beaches in Long Beach.
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia spoke about the city’s re-opening during a press conference May 18.
“Overall, this weekend went well, we felt that… There was obviously a vast majority of people complying over the weekend, folks were being safe, they were distancing,” Garcia said.
However, not everyone was following social distancing protocols, wearing masks, or following the new guidelines to remain active while on the beaches.
“We know there were additional challenges in the Bixby Park area, the bluff… Lifeguards did a good job moving folks along that were gathering.”
Long Beach City’s new amended “Safer-at-home” order issued May 13 is in conjunction with Newsom’s four-phased plan for the reopening of California, as well as LA County’s amended orders which states its purpose is to begin transitioning the city into phase 2 of the Governor’s Roadmap to Recovery.
Long Beach city officials sent a press release May 12, reporting: “This Order also allows limited solo or family outdoor active recreational activities on public beaches,” however, lounging and relaxation without recreation is not allowed.
Though the use of chairs, canopies, coolers, grills, sunbathing, or any similar stationary activity on the beach is prohibited, several beach-goers continued to sunbathe in areas of Long Beach such as Alamitos Bay this weekend.
Physical activities allowed on beaches, as stated in the city’s May 12 press release, include swimming, kayaking, walking, running, kitesurfing and similar active recreational activities.
In addition to the re-opening of beaches, Long Beach City has opened up beach bike and pedestrian paths, golf courses, trails, automobile dealership showrooms, outdoor museums, dog parks and tennis centers.
Each opened space comes with their own set of protocols, including golf courses and tennis courts.
All re-opened outside areas must still adhere to physical distancing protocols that include the following as stated in a press release May 8:
- Stay at least six feet from others, who are not members of your household, at all times.
- Avoid crowded areas.
- Face coverings are required when in close contact with other people but are not required while engaging in physically-distanced exercise.
- Provide adequate physical distancing when passing others. Step off trail to allow others to pass as needed, where safely possible.
- Stay home if you are sick.
- Do not gather in groups or linger at any one location except as needed for brief rests.
- Do not share food or water while out on the trails.
In addition to the re-opening of outside areas, Long Beach city also gave the green light for non-essential retail businesses to open up just before Mother’s Day in accordance to Newsom’s plans.
These retail businesses include bookstores, jewelry stores, toy stores, florists and music stores among many others.
As a precaution, retail stores must also follow protocols for retail establishments, which include symptom checks of staff, having only curbside pickup or delivery options and adequate physical distancing and sanitation available among others.
In a hopeful update, Newsom relaxed guidelines for certain counties in California during a press conference May 18.
Newsom said, “In our additional modifications, we are moving forward to allow some of the larger counties to continue to make progress deeper into phase 2 and to do so effectively immediately at their own pace.”
Counties that show a positivity rate, or the rate of positive tests in relation to total tests given, at less than 8 percent and show hospitalization rates no less than 5 percent per 7 day period, are eligible to re-open at their own pace.
According to data, Newsom said 53 of the 58 counties in California could be eligible with these new criteria to move deeper into phase 2 of re-opening.
Even so, Mayor Garcia had doubts about Long Beach, and spoke about the city’s progress.
“We’re gonna get… Amore clear picture towards the end of this week how we’ve been doing and what the impact of this reopening has had on this city. I’m optimistic and I’m hopeful we’ll have a good report but we’ll wait and see,” Garcia said.
“We’re doing better as a city than the county as a whole, but Long beach does not meet those qualifications for re-opening and neither does LA County, so we cannot move faster than those phased guidelines.”
Though Long Beach cannot move deeper into phase 2 as of yet, Newsom remained hopeful about the reopening of California in the coming weeks and said milestones will be looked at.