City Pulls the Plug on TVs at Restaurant Outdoor Dining Areas

The Pasadena Public Health Department has restricted restaurants from displaying TV in their outdoor dining areas until further notice amid fears that upcoming Super Bowl Sunday could become a super spreader event, officials said Friday.

Pasadena restaurants became free to reopen outdoor dining service Monday when Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the regional stay-at-home order that had been in effect in L.A. County since early December.

L.A. County health officials gave restaurants the green light to reopen outdoor dining on Friday, with provisions including that they do not show television in their outdoor dining areas.

With Super Bowl Sunday just over a week away, and recalling surges in COVID-19 infections tied to previous major sporting events, Pasadena health officials decided to follow suit, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.

“It makes sense, with what we’ve seen in recent months,” she said.

Gathering related to recent Dodgers and Lakers championships were blamed for viral surges.

“We will be proactive in enforcing the rules,” Derderian said. Officials will be keeping an extra close eye on locations where complaints about noncompliance with COVID-19 protocols have been reported in the past.

Derderian emphasized that sports fans should not hold their own gatherings at their homes.

“That would defeat the point,” she said. “Watch it at home. Watch it with your immediate family.”

While new COVID-19 infections have been trending down over the past week, brief lapses in judgment could result in another surge, according to Derderian.

“Numbers are going down, but that could change,” Derderian said.

The policy requires that restaurants not turn their TVs on, but does not require that they be physically removed, she added.

The rule will remain in effect until further notice.

Meanwhile, health officials reported 62 new COVID-19 infections and seven additional deaths on Friday.

Three of the recent deaths were of residents of long-term care facilities, while the other four lived in the community at large, Derderian said.

The virus appears to have been claiming younger victims lately, she said.

“Sadly, I’ve been noticing that decedents from the community are expiring at a fairly young age,” Derderian said. “The median age for the four community deaths for today is 61 years old and therefore, the cumulative median age at death has gone back down to 82 years old.”

The new figures brought Pasadena’s overall totals to 10,106 infections and 251 fatalities, according to city data.

Huntington Hospital reported treating 144 COVID-19 patients on Friday, with 29 of them being cared for in intensive care units.

Los Angeles County public health officials reported another 7,112 new COVID infections, lifting the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 1,104,393.

The county also reported 228 deaths, raising the overall death toll to 16,332.

According to figures provided by the state, there were 5,669 people hospitalized in the county due to COVID-19, including 1,498 in intensive care.

That was down from 5,855 total patients on Thursday, continuing a downward trend that began in early January when the figure topped 8,000.

Health officials have warned that daily deaths will likely remain high for the rest of the month, even as case numbers and hospital admissions continue to fall. Deaths are considered a lagging indicator, meaning they naturally follow increases in hospitalizations. 

While the case numbers have improved, they still remain dramatically high. Dr. Christina Ghaly, the county’s health services director, noted this week that while new COVID hospital admissions have dropped to about 500 per day from the recent high of about 700 per day, the current rate is still double that seen in the virus surge that occurred last summer.

L.A. County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis Davis stressed the need for all businesses and residents to adhere strictly to infection-control requirements, saying people shouldn’t be lulled into complacency by new economic reopenings.

“Nobody wants to see this number going back or the lines going back up in terms of our cases, our hospitalizations or even our deaths,” he said. “We can’t relax. Because if we don’t take precautions, in two weeks we’re going to see cases rise again.”

At the state level, the California Department of Public Health announced 19,337 new infections and 617 new deaths on Friday, bringing the statewide totals to 3,205,947 cases of the virus and 39,579 deaths.

The state’s average positivity rate over the prior seven days had inched down to 7.4%, while the 14-day rate was recorded at 8.2%, according to the CDPH.

As of Friday, L.A. County represented 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 41% of the state’s fatalities.

City News Service contributed to this report.