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Will Rising Cases Of Coronavirus Lead To Another Stay-At-Home Order For LA County?

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — There is growing concern the rising cases of coronavirus in Los Angeles County could lead to another lockdown.

Within the county, another 4,500 people tested positive for the virus Saturday, and three people died. Another stay-at-home order could come as early as Sunday, and last three weeks.

If the county's five-day average exceeds 4,500 cases or hospitalizations top 2,000, a strict safer-at-home order will be issued similar to the one imposed at the onset of the pandemic. The order would allow only essential workers to leave home, or people who are accessing essential services.

"If we can't get this back under control, that is unfortunately where we're headed," Barbara Ferrer, director of Public Health, said. "I still hope that we don't have to go to Safer At Home and that we're able in the next few days to start turning this around. But it really at this point means that things we did last week were part of a solution to turn things around."

"The other hope I have is that if that wasn't possible and people didn't make changes last week, that they're making them today so that this is of short duration," she said. "I know how exhausting that is for everyone, to continue to have to abide by rules and restrictions. I also know how exhausted our health care workers are, our essential workers are. And for all of their sakes, we need to slow down the spread and we need to do that rapidly."

San Bernardino County set a new record for daily case numbers with 2,800 new cases and two deaths. Elsewhere, in Orange County, COVID-19 claimed 11 lives and infected 800 people.

As a result of the rising numbers, a curfew went into effect for Los Angeles County Saturday from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.

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