Los Angeles, America's most populous county is targeting a July 4th reopening as experts of public health and policy have said, the COVID-19 crisis has stabilized enough to start recovering from an economic downturn.

Officials of the LA county, this week, set the deadline to restart restaurants, retails shops, and malls by Independence Day as stay-at-home guidelines continue taking a toll on almost every industry "from retail to television to movie production."

According to Professor Neeraj Sood, also Vice Dean for research at the Price School of Public Policy of the University of Southern California, the pandemic is now under control with the lockdown directives, and can already begin thinking about lessening such orders.

Specifically, Sood said, he thinks LA is ready for reopening on July 4th, Independence Day. In order for businesses to operate again, they need to provide the county with their detailed proposals by end-June.

The said proposal must outline the safety guidelines they plan to introduce for the protection of their workers and customers, including the social distancing orders and access of the employees to persona protective equipment or PPE.

To Move Forward in a Cautious Manner

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors chair, Kathryn Barger said, she believes, "As far as I'm concerned," if the county moves forward in a cautious manner and work with all of the industries, then, "we could be discussing opening" many of the businesses even before July 4.

On Friday, the Department of Justice sent LA City Mayor Eric Garcetti and the county's public health director, Barbara Ferrer a letter cautioning that a long-term lockdown maybe both illegal and arbitrary.

Also in the latter, the Justice Department said it acknowledged the county and city's responsibility of protecting residents but that particular governmental authority, though, is not unlimited and must be applied reasonably.

Meanwhile, the health officials warned that meeting the said target date will be a huge responsibility tied to both data and science and "not public sentiment."

Ferrer added, "We have to do a lot of things right" to successfully meet the target date. She said she thinks the reality is that, there is indeed, a need to really aim together to achieve the target as swiftly as possible.

The director also expressed the importance of paying attention as well, to science and data. The LA County which has exceeded 2,000 deaths on Thursday due to COVID-19, accounts for almost 50 percent of the 86,000 confirmed cases and fatalities of California. 

Far from Over

 As the nation prepares to reopen the economy, a new study that Sood led suggests that more residents have been reportedly infected than the validated case counts at present. 

Also, based on the ongoing serology research which the county health department and the USC conducted, about three percent of residents have been infected by COVID-19.

Meaning, explained Sood, "we are nowhere near the end" of this pandemic. There is a need to have an enduring plan, he continued, "on the horizon for policy planning."

According to health experts, the formulation, evaluation, and production of vaccines stay at least one 12 to 18 months from now. They admitted though, that all economies can no longer afford to wait long enough without failing.

To date, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. stated that more than one million unemployment claims have already been filed in the county since the stay-at-home directives were issued in the middle of March. 

The agency added over 75 percent of the jobs predicted to have been lost compensated below $50,000 annually. A lockdown, Sood specified, "is not sustainable" in any manner health-wise, politically, and economically.

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