L.A. County Task Force to Present Guidelines on Tuesday For "Immediate Reopening" of Film And TV Production

In the latest COVID-19 press briefing for L.A. County, officials noted Tuesday would offer updates to reopen sectors such as theme parks, sports venues and film and digital media spaces.

During Friday afternoon's COVID-19 briefing for Los Angeles county, Kathryn Barger, chair of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, announced that on Tuesday roadmaps for safely reopening key sectors would be made available, including for sports venues, theme parks, corporate businesses as well as film and digital media.

Barger said the Economic Resiliency Task Force had been hard at work to "ensure industries can hit the ground running with proper public health guidelines," spotlighting NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell and Casey Wasserman for their contributions. 

Also during Friday's briefing, L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer reported that there have been 50 additional fatalities and 1,824 new confirmed novel coronavirus cases. 

For L.A. county, this brings the total number of confirmed cases to 51,562 and total deaths to 2,290. In California, there have been 103,886 cases as of Friday with total deaths reaching 4,068. The national figure for cases is over 1.7 million, with a death count reaching over 100,000.

In the latest COVID-19 press briefing from California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, he gave an update on how California is moving forward in its testing.

"Our testing has substantially increased in this state," the Gov. said, noting that 50,000 tests are typically performed each day. He emphasized that as more tests are performed, more positive tests will be seen. "It is incredibly important that we test our diverse communities," Newsom went on to say, along with the need to protect vulnerable communities such as nursing homes. 

With the new training of a taskforce of individuals to trace new positive cases, Newsom is confident that by July 1st, 10,000 contact tracers will be able to trace 3,600 new cases per day. "Testing, tracing and the capacity to distribute appropriate protective gear is foundational," said Newsom. He noted that, among the equipment available in California, there are 11,000 ventilators that may be used if there is a flare-up in cases.

Earlier on Friday, Newsom approved an application to reopen restaurants for in-person dining, and for hair salons to resume in-house services. "Local leadership will guide decisions of when to reopen," emphasized the Gov. during the presser. 

On May 21, a document was released by LA County officials that offers guidelines for restaurants and bars to reopen with COVID-19 safety measures in place, including physical distancing, cleaning and sanitizing, facility safety, customer expectations and more. 

"Phase four is concerts, big outdoor stadiums, sporting events and festivals," said Newsom, noting that LA County is "not there yet."

Appearing on The View on Friday, Newsom emphasized that amid this stage of reopening the economy, "perfect" is not on the menu. "My biggest fear is amnesia," said the Gov. during his virtual appearance. "My biggest fear is that we forget the reality of the last eight weeks, nine, 10 weeks in the state and in this nation and imperil, put ourselves at real risk of not just a second wave but recognizing that we're not even out of the first wave of this pandemic."

Newsom also used Friday's presser to speak about George Floyd’s tragic death. He said that his 10-year-old daughter teared up at the video on TikTok because she understood what it meant, and that all four of his children, the youngest being four years old, were all able to reflect on the harshness of the incident.

"We have a country that predominantly values dominance, power and aggression over values such as care, collaboration and empathy," said Newsom, urging the community to exercise positive values moving forward.

"This state is America's coming attraction," said Newsom during the presser. "When one part suffers, we all suffer," he added, encouraging a change of behavior in order to move forward as better human beings, leaders and parents.