L.A. County allowed to increase capacity indoors

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County can reopen even more businesses — including outdoor bars that don’t serve food — while expanding how many people are allowed to dine indoors and catch a movie, California public health officials announced Tuesday.

The county of 10 million people was one of several counties, including neighboring Orange County, that moved into the state’s second-least restrictive orange tier amid low coronavirus case rates and increased vaccinations. Half of the state’s nearly 40 million people are now in that tier, which means virus rates are “moderate.”

The new rules allow for expanded activities the following day, but counties can opt to maintain more restrictions. It’s still unclear how quickly L.A. and other reassigned counties will move to increase capacity and reopen businesses.

Officials in Orange County said restaurants, theaters, museums and churches can allow people indoors at 50 percent capacity starting Wednesday. Bars that don’t serve food can operate outdoors, and bowling alleys and card rooms can operate indoors at 25 percent capacity.

Health officials are urging caution because of a troubling rise in new cases of COVID-19, but aquariums and amusement parks are on track to reopen in California anyway. The state’s mask mandate remains in effect.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday that the next few weeks will be critical, given the potential surge.

“At the same time, we are vaccinating more and more people,” he said during a virtual event hosted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “It’s going to be almost a race between getting people vaccinated, versus avoiding a surge of new cases.”

The typically crowded Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk reopens Thursday, while Universal Studios Hollywood plans to reopen April 16, followed by Disneyland at the end of April and the Monterey Bay Aquarium in May.

Only three counties totaling more than 1 million people — San Joaquin, Merced and Inyo — remain in the state’s most restricted purple tier, where the virus remains widespread. Thirty-six counties are in the state’s red tier, including Fresno County, where officials said Tuesday people could dine indoors and visit the movies and museums at 25 percent capacity starting Wednesday.

Santa Cruz and Alameda also moved to the orange tier Tuesday. Two counties are in the least-restricted yellow tier.

Meanwhile, California is expanding vaccine eligibility to people 50 and older starting Thursday and to all adults on April 15.