California Weighs Reopening Theme Parks as COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates Decline

With fall holidays around the corner, Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed questions about when theme parks — Disneyland in particular — will reopen by saying his administration is sending teams on “insight visits” for “deeper collaboration” with representatives from other parks, such as Florida’s Disney World, which reopened in July.

During a press briefing Monday, Newsom also said that guidelines for how to celebrate Halloween safely would be released on Tuesday.

Over the past two weeks, California saw an 8% drop in the number of hospital admissions due to COVID-19, while intensive care unit (ICU) admissions dropped even further, by 13%.

Statewide, the rate of positive test results is declining slightly, averaging 2.6% over the past 14 days. In another sign of progress, 42 counties are no longer in the state's most restrictive “purple tier” governing how many business can reopen.

California has now trained over 10,890 contact tracers — among them, more than 1,800 who are bilingual in a range of languages from Spanish to Hmong, state officials said Monday.

According to state health and human services secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, more than 125,000 tests are being performed daily on average, with 90% getting results within 48 hours. In the case of a positive result, 97% of local health departments have been able to get in touch with a person’s contacts on the same day, he added.

— Monica Lam (@monicazlam)