California Gov. Gavin Newsom granted Los Angeles County permission to reopen restaurants, barbershops and hair salons Friday.
Restaurants, barbershops and hair salons will now be able to offer in-person services while following social distancing guidelines set by the county.
There are nearly 50,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in LA County and over 100,000 in California, according to the California state government website.
Newsom granted the county permission to partially reopen after the county submitted a variance application to the state to determine if they met the California Department of Public Health’s guidelines to reopen.
The variance application is submitted by counties that want permission to reopen their economies while the stay-at-home orders are active.
LA County officials provided evidence in their application that their number of COVID-19 cases was low enough for the county to respond to an increase in cases if stay-at-home orders were loosened, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The application showed less than 8% tested positive in LA County in the last seven days, thereby meeting the CDPH’s guidelines.
The state required counties to prove their infection rate was low enough to reopen if they had less than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period or lower than 8% of people who tested positive for the virus in the last seven days.
The county stated in the application that 6.5% tested positive in the past week.
In the past four days, 8% of people tested had the coronavirus.
LA County had nearly 100 cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks.
The county also included its community mitigation plan in their application, which estimates how the pandemic will affect the county in the upcoming months.
LA County joins over 40 other counties in California whose variance applications have been approved by the state, according to LA Times.
