Long Beach health officials reported that a man in his 60s died of COVID-19, and another 127 people tested positive for the virus.
As of Friday, 189 Long Beach residents have died of the virus, and 9,552 have tested positive.
Although the volume of positive cases is still elevated—the city reported close to 800 new cases this week—officials reported some good news on Thursday: Its positivity rate among those who are tested declined from over 14% several weeks ago to 8.6% this week. The rate is still shy of the 8% mark the state requires to begin opening up parts of the economy.
School officials on Friday also confirmed that an employee at Poly High School and two employees at Millikan High School tested positive for the coronavirus, causing alarm ahead of the school year beginning on Sept. 1.
The city late Thursday issued new guidance for schools when they are allowed to reopen for in-person instruction, along with guidance for youth sports, nursing homes and clarifying rules on live entertainment:
Dine-in protocols:
The updated rules add language that live entertainment continues to be prohibited, per the state order. Establishments that serve full meals must discontinue live entertainment until these types of activities are allowed to resume.
Youth sports will be allowed outdoors only, with activities such as training and conditioning allowed. However all youth sporting events, including tournaments and competitions, are prohibited. Practice games among players of the same team are allowed for non-contact sports (including singles tennis, golf, some track and field events, cheerleading without stunts, weightlifting, gymnastics, diving, rowing or sailing alone and swimming) so long as the minimum 8-foot distance is observed. At all times, players, coaches and spectators are required to wear a face covering except while swimming, showering, eating, drinking or engaging in solo physical activity.
Only remote learning is allowed, until Los Angeles County is off the state monitoring list for 14 consecutive days. Once the city and county is allowed to reopen, protocols include workplace policies and practices to protect employee and student health; measures to ensure physical distancing; measures to ensure infection control; communication with employees, students, families of students, and the public; and measures to ensure equitable access to critical services.
Long-term care facilities
The Health Department has issued an amendment to its health orders that will allow for the reinstatement of communal dining and expanded visitation, only upon review and approval by the Health Department. Facilities may be eligible to resume communal dining and limited group activities only after the facility has had no new COVID-19 cases for 14 days. Facilities may be eligible to reinstate visitation after the facility successfully re-established limited communal dining and group activities without any new onset of COVID-19 cases for 14 additional days.