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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday issued new coronavirus lockdown restrictions as cases in the city continue to reach record highs.
The city's public health department has reported 414,185 total cases to date, including nearly 6,000 on Wednesday, less than a month away from Christmas.
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"It's time to hunker down," Garcetti said in a Wednesday video announcing the new restrictions. "It's time to cancel everything, and if it isn't essential, don't do it. Don't meet up with others outside your household. Don't host a gathering. Don't attend a gathering."
The order, effective immediately, requires all city residents to stay home, unless engaging in a list of essential activities, and all businesses to cease operations.
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Public transportation and gatherings are prohibited with the exception of gatherings for outdoor religious services and outdoor protests with social distancing and face masks.
Essential activities include health care operations, grocery store visits, farming, social services, media and music production, plumbing and electricity work and so on, according to the order.
"Our City is now close to a devastating tipping point, beyond which the number of hospitalized patients would start to overwhelm our hospital system, in turn risking needless suffering and death," a Wednesday public order from Garcetti reads. "These unfortunate facts about the spread of COVID-19 in our City mean that we must resume some of the more restrictive measures we instituted in the Spring."
Wednesday's order builds upon L.A. County's new "Safer at Home" order issued last week amid a surge in cases. Officials warned that restrictions could tighten if the county's five-day threshold of new cases surpassed 4,500.
