LOS ANGELES — On a day the county reported more than 70 coronavirus deaths, Los Angeles County officials announced a goal of achieving a “safe reopening” of the local economy as early as July 4.
At the county’s daily coronavirus briefing, Supervisor Hilda Solis and public health director Barbara Ferrer tried to stress that the July 4 date is just a goal, but the mission is to reopen the economy sooner than later, recognizing that residents are growing weary of continued stay-at-home restrictions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier in the week announced relaxed standards that individual counties need to meet to reopen more sectors of the local economy, but given the relatively high local number of cases and deaths — representing about half of the statewide total — Los Angeles County is far short of meeting any of them.
Ferrer said it’s helpful for the county to set a July 4 target date for reopening the bulk of the local economy, but again stressed the need for residents to continue working to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Ferrer said the county will release later this week the results of the latest round of serology — or antibody — testing, which is done to estimate the actual spread of the virus in the county.
