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Garcetti Sees Hope In Coronavirus Numbers, But Says It's No Time For Complacency
Eric Garcetti in his Wednesday, March 25 press conference. (via Eric Garcetti's Youtube channel)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he sees some hope in today's coronavirus numbers, even though the county added 521 new cases to surpass 4,500 countywide.
The reason for that glimmer of hope? While the raw number of new daily cases may be increasing on average, Garcetti said that number as a percent of the total is dropping. Last week, cases increased by an average of 27% each day. This week, they went up by only 18% each day.
Still:
"On the other hand, before you start to get relaxed and say we can go outside, this is a moment to continue pressing on the accelerator."
These are businesses that have refused to close, been visited by the LAPD and given verbal warnings, and yet continued to remain open. Non-essential businesses that refuse to heed the closure orders have been told they eventually could face misdeanor offenses, and the L.A. Department of Water and Power has been instructed to shut off their utilities.
The city attorney has now filed criminal charges against four of the first businesses that were referred.
Garcetti also announced that anyone who needs to renew a preferential parking district permit will have a two-week extension.
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