UPDATE: Late tonight, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia announced the shut down of bars and nightclubs by health department order. Also ordered shut: Gyms, fitness studios and movie theaters.
Garcia said:
"This has been one of the hardest decisions to make, and I understand it’s devastating for workers and small business owners. We are in a health emergency and we must take decisive action."
Starting at midnight tonight, all bars and nightclubs will be closed by city health order. In addition, restaurants and coffee shops need to shift to take out and to go options and close dining rooms. Gyms and fitness studios and movie theaters also need to close.
— Robert Garcia (@RobertGarcia) March 17, 2020
“Restaurants are a critical piece of food delivery in our city; we can’t get through this without you serving food,” Mayor Robert Garcia said on the call.
At the earlier press conference, Garcia said the city is also pausing parking tickets and street sweeping ticketing for one week: “We don’t want folks to wake up and be faced with misinformation as it relates to not moving their cars,” he said.
However, he emphasized street sweeping is “an important function as it relates to public health,” he said. “It is important that we have the ability to move debris.”
Garcia said the city is evaluating whether to take even more stringent action such as the directive in six Bay Area counties for all residents to shelter in place Monday.
“They’re obviously in a much more advanced place as far as cases than we are, but that doesn’t mean that we should not expect an ‘everything on the table’ approach moving forward,” Garcia said.
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