After initially planning to close Lacy Park for Mother’s Day in an effort to ensure social distancing was maintained during the holiday, San Marino officials reversed course today after the county also announced it would begin its reopen from the pandemic.
Los Angeles County officials announced this week that a variety of public spaces and businesses would be allowed to reopen with restrictions, after having largely been shuttered to the public since March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the county and other cities had included their own parks in the closures, San Marino kept Lacy Park open throughout while keeping a watchful eye that visitors did not gather in large groups.
In an update emailed to residents, City Manager Marcella Marlowe acknowledged that Gov. Gavin Newsom ultimately ceded planning to counties so they could address regional needs; L.A. County, being more dense and showing higher infection rates than neighboring counties, will likely have a more prolonged process than its neighbors.
As of press time on Tuesday, there were 12 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among San Marino residents, out of 84 administered tests. Among those cases, no deaths were reported as a result of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that began spreading from China late last year and was declared a global pandemic by March 11.
In L.A. County, the disease has killed at least 1,313 residents as of Tuesday, and there have been at least 27,815 confirmed infections. Skilled nursing facilities and other institutional settings, in addition to health care workers, are particularly vulnerable to outbreaks and exposure to the virus. Half of the county’s deaths have been residents of those institutional facilities, according to Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
Information was gathered from various portals on the Department of Public Health’s website, publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus.
County officials have opened up free testing for the disease, previously available to those with symptoms or by order of a doctor, to all essential workers, those 65 and older, those with chronic underlying health conditions and those living in institutional settings. The city of Los Angeles is also giving free tests to any asymptomatic county resident at its testing locations within city limits.
For additional information, visit covid19.lacounty.gov/testing.
