Officials of Los Angeles County have directed county agencies to assess the means and impact of requiring vaccinations as a condition of entry into public spaces such as restaurants.
The directive by the County Board of Supervisors called on public health and consumer affairs officials, with input from the city’s legal counsel, to have the feasibility study and policy recommendations ready for action within two weeks.
The motion approved unanimously by the Council on Tuesday does not specifically mention restaurants as the sort of businesses that would be covered by the mandate. But the measure directs county agencies to study the vaccination requirements announced by New York City and France as part of their research. Restaurants are a main focus of the mandates being imposed by those jurisdictions.
Part of the study group’s charge is to recommend what businesses should be covered and which specifically exempted. It is also directed to provide recommendations on how consumers could prove they’ve been inoculated against COVID-19.
Nor does the directive call for imposing a vaccine requirement. Rather, it asks for a rundown of how such a mandate would affect the county’s recent surge in new COVID-19 infections, as well as a gauge of the feasibility.
“I want to avoid a situation where we are forced to shut down businesses and limit capacity,” Supervisor Janice Hahn, the principal author of the motion, said in a statement. “That was devastating to our businesses and our local workers. We need to look at every tool at our disposal to protect our residents and our economy.”
She noted that many restaurants and bars in Los Angeles have voluntarily adopted vaccine mandates as a way of allaying fears of contamination within their doors.
Los Angeles was one of the last major restaurant markets to lift safety restrictions off its eating and drinking places. The county encompassing it was one of the first jurisdictions to reimpose mask requirements on indoor establishments when infection rates started climbing again because of the delta variant of coronavirus.
That more-contagious form of the virus has brought a flashback to 2020 in many areas of the country with low vaccination rates. In Los Angeles County, 4 million residents have yet to get the shots, according to Hahn.
She noted that New York City saw a 40% increase in vaccination rates after the city announced plans to mandate proof of vaccinations for entry into restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues.
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