Amid record-setting spikes in newly confirmed coronavirus infections, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti urged Angelenos to continue staying home as much as possible — even as the region’s economy gradually emerges from its pandemic-induced coma.
During a briefing Wednesday, Garcetti shared four major takeaways: “One, COVID-19 is still here. Two, COVID-19 is still dangerous. Three, we’re adding more testing to make sure that we can find COVID-19 where it lives. And, four, we must continue to take precautions to keep our city and our people safe.
“That’s why wearing a face covering, that’s why practicing physical distancing, washing our hands and, yes, still, as painful as it might feel, staying at home whenever we can is our best defense,” he said.
Starting Thursday, Garcetti said, Los Angeles would dramatically ramp up capacity at its COVID-19 test sites, from 7,700 to 13,700 tests per day, to meet increased demand.
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A woman adjusts a protective mask while walkiing along Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Ti mes)
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Cameron Johnson,18, left, headed to U.C. Berkeley in the fall and Simona Krasnegor,17, headed to UCLA in the fall, watched the sun set while sitting next to the Manhattan Beach, Pier, following their drive-through graduation from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
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Jair Guido, 36, a veterinarian visiting from Durango, Mexico, right, wearing a sombrero with an American flag draped over his shoulders, walks with other pedestrians along Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Guido said that he wore this outfit to show people that he is proud to be a Mexican and that he loves America. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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A mask-wearing skateboarder and her dog make their way along the boardwalk in Venice Beach. Californians must wear face masks in public under a coronavirus order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Pedestrians, some with face coverings, some without, walk past musicians Brent Kendell, background left, and Sam Jones, background right, as they perform at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Hollywood.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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People wear masks while walking along the boardwalk in Venice Beach. Californians must wear face masks in public under a coronavirus order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Pedestrians cross the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public, following growing concerns that an increase in coronavirus cases has been caused by residents failing to voluntarily take that precaution.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Sophia Strauss, left, and Sarah Hoffmeister celebrate after their drive-through graduation from Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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A man wears a mask at the Orange Circle on Thursday in Orange. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings due to the coronavirus. Orange County recently eased the requirement.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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Pedestrians walk along 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles Thursday. Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Shoppers stroll near the Orange Circle on Thursday in Orange. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings due to the coronavirus.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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New West Charter School vice principal Mark Herrera shouts at graduate Joe Reid to come and receive his diploma during a drive-up graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020 at the charter school in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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A worker directs drivers at a drive-up testing site for COVID-19 outside of Jackie Robinson Stadium at UCLA.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Destiny VanSciner is tested for COVID-19 with an oral swab by family nurse practitioner Anniesatu Newland at a walk-in site at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center in South Los Angeles.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Melissa Gomes fixes the tassel on the mortarboard of Sarah Anggraini as the new graduate gets ready for a photo at Chaffey College, which held a drive-through graduation, in Rancho Cucamonga.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Maricela Moreno, manager at El Tarasco in Marina del Rey, disinfects cash at the restaurant.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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Mildred “Millie” Stratton waves to a caravan of cars led by Alhambra police officers and firefighters. The parade past her home celebrated Stratton’s 102nd birthday.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Eric Larkin hands an order to Brittany Wright as she fastens her face covering outside the Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
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“I would rather fend for myself than rely on the government for shelter,” says Kenny Welch, standing beneath a 110 Freeway overpass in Los Angeles.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
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Ed Hassan, the owner of Mr. Frost Ice Cream truck, makes his rounds in Tustin. Hassan had been on lockdown for about six weeks and took the time to repaint and reorganize his cargo van. “I thought they wanted me at home so I was at home. But there are huge demands,” he says.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / Los Angeles Times)
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A jogger passes Evergreen Cemetery in Los Angeles as local stay-at-home orders are increasingly relaxed months into the coronavirus outbreak.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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Hikers and bikers traverse the Santa Fe Dam trail as county parks officially reopen to the public.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
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A woman, masked against COVID-19, walks past a building that features the image of Britney Spears at a shopping center in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Manon Guijarro, a new graduate of Pierce College, has her photo taken by friend Paige Johnson at Chris Burden’s outdoor work “Urban Light” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
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Mary Perez, a salesperson at High Class Jewels on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, helps a customer as he tries on a gold rope chain inside the recently reopened store.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
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Professional dog walker Lindsay Rojas takes golden retrievers Gomez, left, and Nikki for a stroll along Le Bourget Avenue in Culver City.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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The Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying team banks over downtown Los Angeles in formation to salute healthcare workers and first responders on May 15.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Maria Morales, center, a member of the USC class of 2020, participates in virtual graduation via Zoom with her brother Manny Morales, left, mom Pilar Morales and stepdad Victor Ramos from her home in Orange.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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On a recent day, there’s not a face mask in sight as a roller skater and others share the reopened walking path on the Strand in Manhattan Beach.
(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
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Lorena Jimenez joins coworkers, family and friends at a candlelight vigil for Rosa Luna outside Riverside Community Hospital. Luna, 68, was a housekeeper at the hospital for 25 years before she died recently of COVID-19.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
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Old friends who share Iranian heritage and the Assyrian language play backgammon while enjoying one another’s company at Reseda Park.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
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Ross Curtis, right, says, “You gotta make it fun,” as he and Saul Osorio place food in vehicles at the Banc of California Stadium. The Salvation Army was distributing 2,000 boxes of food to pre-registered local Angelenos struggling due to the pandemic.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Bell Vasquez takes her son Israel, 4, for a spin while visiting the boardwalk in Venice Beach.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Olivia Craig, left, Rani Mathew, Kathy Trigueiro and Christina Moore, members of the healthcare staff of the Los Robles Health System, applaud as one of two C-130s flies over Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks in honor of healthcare providers and first responders throughout Ventura County.
(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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The Pasadena City Council opened the Rose Bowl Loop, allowing visitors to enjoy the popular 3-mile trail around the stadium.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
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Crew members of a Hainan Airlines flight walk through the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.
(Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
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A woman wearing a protective mask walks past a shuttered business in Long Beach.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
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Thousands of rental cars are stored at Dodger Stadium as the coronavirus crisis has caused rentals to nosedive.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
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Salt women’s clothing store owner Holly Boies looks out her front door at an empty Abbott Kinney Boulevard in Venice. Boies was planning to open her store for curbside pickup.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
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Ben, left, Julia, Luke and Ethan Brenier help their mom prepare to open the Wishing Well store in Whittier after being closed due to health restrictions.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times)
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A security guard gets some exercise while keeping watch on the Apple Store at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
(Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
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Boats pass through a channel on a hot day in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. The city was crowded by an influx of Californians amid the pandemic.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
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Some beachgoers actively use the beach while others relax on the sand, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s active-use-only order, in Huntington Beach.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
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Christine Gamez of Fullerton returns her fostered dog, Tyson, to the South L.A. animal shelter. Gamez was emotional because she could no longer continue to foster Tyson due to her current living situation.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
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Customers defy social distancing and the wearing of masks to stand in line at the recently opened Nomads Canteen in San Clemente. The restaurant opened its doors to dine-in services in defiance of California’s stay-at-home order.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
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After making a finger prick to draw blood from a patient, Hannah Veal places the blood on an antibody testing device at a drive-through testing site behind the Westside Walk-in Clinic in Los Angeles.
(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)
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Fiona Sellers, 16, makes a stew for herself and her mom at Elysian Park in Los Angeles. Sellers and her mom, who live in an RV, were using the outdoor grills to cook. She brought her laptop with her to the cooking area so that she could do online schoolwork.
(Gabriella Angotti-Jones/Los Angeles Times)
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Traveling nurse Gail Cunningham waves thanks outside the emergency room entrance to Riverside University Health System in Moreno Valley as residents pay tribute to her and other medical personnel with a drive-by rally.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
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Jaime Miranda creates an arrangement at Lupita’s Flowers in downtown Los Angeles ahead of Mother’s Day weekend.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
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From left, Calabasas residents and friends Diana Villena, with her dog, Muca; Jason Tiba; Tali Nadjar; Justin Siegal; and Hanson Dickman practice social distancing while spending time together at a park in Calabasas. They are all graduates of Calabasas High School.
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
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Scene from the Donut Hole, the historic drive-through doughnut shop in La Puente.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
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A scene from “Knives Out,” with actor Don Johnson, seen at the Mission Tiki Drive-in Theatre in Montclair. Opened with one screen in 1956, the Mission Tiki expanded to four screens in 1975 and began renovation in 2006, updating to FM transmitters and digital projectors.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
The announcement comes on the heels of news that many have been unable to book testing appointments, particularly following massive protests against police brutality that prompted health officials to urge demonstrators to get screened.
There have been nearly 90,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and more than 3,200 deaths in L.A. County.
That total caseload has been fueled by significant spikes of late — including several days in which the county reported more than 2,000 new infections.
Health officials have repeatedly said that case counts would rise as more businesses and public spaces reopened, and California set back-to-back records this week in terms of daily reported coronavirus cases.
The state shattered a daily record for new cases Monday, reporting more than 6,000 infections for the first time. That number surged even higher Tuesday, when 6,652 new cases were reported.
The state reported 4,629 new cases Wednesday, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker — pushing its cumulative total past 196,000. More than 5,700 Californians have died from COVID-19, including 98 on Wednesday.
“While you may be done with COVID, COVID is not done with us,” Garcetti said.
Cumulative case counts are only part of the equation. Health officials have said other metrics — such as the number of patients who require hospitalization — help paint a more complete picture of the coronavirus outbreak.
However, there are warning signs there, too. While L.A. County saw an average of 62 fewer hospitalized patients daily for confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 between the week of Memorial Day and last week, Riverside County saw an average daily increase of 85 patients; San Bernardino County, 70; Ventura County, 33; and Orange County, 32, according to a Times analysis.
Orange County also reported 26 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday — its most in a single day. Officials noted that not all of those people died on that particular day. The recently reported fatalities date from as far back as May 9, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
A review of death certificates resulted in the confirmation of 26 new deaths, the agency reported in a Twitter post offering“our sincere sympathies for the lives lost to this virus, no matter the day.”
Despite the increase in confirmed infections, elected and health officials have not indicated they plan to reimpose the kind of restrictions that shuttered and battered California’s economy.
That’s not to say drastic action is off the table, though. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all Californians to wear face coverings while in public or high-risk settings — a move he said was aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus and helping keep the state’s reopening plans on track.
However, the move has been met with resistance and derision in some corners of the state. Some residents and elected officials have pledged not to follow the order, and some law enforcement agencies have said they will not enforce it.
Newsom warned Wednesday that counties that fail to abide by the state’s COVID-19 guidelines, including the face-covering mandate, could lose state funding targeting the coronavirus outbreak.
“There are some that have made rhetorical comments about not giving a damn, flouting any consideration of supporting the broader health directives coming out of the state of California,” Newsom said. “That’s exactly why I look forward to signing this budget that will afford me a little bit of leverage in that conversation and I think that’s the appropriate next step.”
Times staff writers Colleen Shalby, Rong-Gong Lin II, Iris Lee, Sean Greene, Taryn Luna and Phil Willon contributed to this report.
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