Long Beach City Council Members Push To Resume Indoor Dining
LONG BEACH (CBSLA) — Three Long Beach councilmembers are pushing to get the state to allow limited indoor dining, even as local and county health officials warn of a new surge in COVID-19 cases.
The council members want to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to allow indoor dining to 25% capacity at restaurants in counties in the purple tier, the state's most restrictive tier, The Long Beach Post reported.
Currently, state rules only allow outdoor dining for restaurants.
"Long Beach is a major urban city and considering our hospitalization and positivity rates, we are not dissimilar to cities in nearby communities that are in the red tier based on their county designation," the proposal, that will be considered at Tuesday's city council meeting, states. "This reality has produced very unfair and illogical outcomes, given that businesses within two miles of each other, offering the same service and engaged in the same activities, are treated inconsistently."
Three weeks ago, personal care services, like hair and nail salons, were allowed to reopen indoor with no restrictions on capacity, the proposal points out.
"Restaurants should be considered in this conversation," it says.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)