With Covid-19 cases surging and hospitalizations nearing records, the Los Angeles County Health officials has announced new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus that has so far claimed more 7360 lives in the Southland, including 28 in Culver City.

The new restrictions, which take effect today, will limit the restaurants, bars and wineries to half their capacity and shut them down by 10 a.m. Non-essential businesses - including retail stores, offices, personal care services - will be limited to 25% of the indoor capacity.

Cardrooms, outdoor mini-golf, go-karts and batting cages will be limited to 50% maximum outdoor capacity while salons and personal care establishments may only be provided by appointment to customers wearing face coverings by staff wearing face coverings. Services that require either the customer or the staff to remove their face covering, such as facials and shaves, are not permitted.

These changes come as the county has been averaging roughly 3000 daily cases for the past two weeks and hospitalizations topped 1200 for the past week, public health officials said.

As of press time on Thursday, the number of Culver City residents with Covid-19 shot up to 527 cases, a 15% increase in the past week. Deaths related to coronavirus totaled 28 locally, health officials said.

Public Health also reported yesterday a record 5,031 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 29 deaths in Los Angeles County. The total infected now stands at 353,232 with 7,363 deaths. Ninety-three percent of people who died had underlying health conditions.

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There are 1,238 people with Covid-19 currently hospitalized, with 28% of them in the ICU. On November 2, the number of people hospitalized was 777, officials said.

The County's test positivity rate, or the percentage of tests that come back positive, has increased from an average of about 5.1% on November 8 to about 7.1% yesterday. For comparison, the test positivity rate was 3.9% on November 1.

County officials have established thresholds for additional actions if cases and/or hospitalizations continue to increase.

If the five-day average of cases is 4,000 or more or hospitalizations are more than 1,750 per day, officials warned, outdoor and indoor dining at restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars will be prohibited and these businesses will only be able to offer pick-up and delivery services.

Health officials also said that if the five-day average is 4,500 or more and hospitalizations top 2,000 per day, a Safer at Home Order will be mandated for three weeks. The order would only allow essential and emergency workers and those securing essential services to leave their homes. In addition, a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew would be mandated, with essential workers exempt.

"Avoid all activities where there will be crowds and where it is hard to maintain a distance of six feet from others," said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. "Wear face coverings inside and outside if you are with people who are older or who have underlying health conditions. And make sure to follow all the rules at businesses, worksites and retail establishments."

Ferrer is also urging residents to stay home and celebrate Thanksgiving with people who live in their household. "Gather outdoors with no more than two other households, and no more than 15 people; wear face coverings unless eating or drinking and stay at least 6 feet apart," she said. "Limit the gathering to no more than two hours."

The rate of infection in Culver City stands at 1322 per 100,000 population. But it's much lower than the 100K levels at some neighboring cities, including Beverly Hills at 2520, Inglewood at 3251 and the City of Los Angeles 3591.