People celebrating the Fourth of July holiday this weekend will have to do so under guidelines aimed at slowing the coronavirus pandemic, which means avoiding social gatherings and celebrations.
In addition, officials ordered the closure of indoor restaurant dining, beaches and certain other venues earlier this week as the state attempts to reduce the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases.
Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom even threatened possible financial penalties for local governments who didn’t enforce coronavirus rules.
Without block parties, fireworks shows or access to beaches in the Long Beach area, politicians were left urging residents to celebrate their country in a new way: “Do the patriotic thing this Fourth of July by staying home,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement.
Officials have repeatedly pleaded with residents not to gather with anyone outside their own household even on a day normally full of barbecues and backyard parties.
And after weeks of demonstrations and protests over police killings, Long Beach police were still monitoring planned rallies on Saturday.
A local group, LB Strong, had planned to host a fundraising party at the Robert Gumbiner skatepark to promote the group’s recall efforts of Mayor Robert Garcia. However, LB Strong organizer Franklin Sims said officers approached him as they were setting up and warned him about potentially breaking up the event.
Police were also getting scattered calls about people gathering outside. At one point, someone called police and reported about 25 individuals gathered at McArthur Park. Another complaint mentioned approximately 50 people at the beach.
It’s unclear if police did actually break up any of those gatherings. An LBPD spokesperson said the department would not have details on how many social-gatherings calls the department received or how many citations it issued until Monday.
The emphasis on enforcement comes as California and Long Beach officials worry about a spike in COVID-19 cases. Since Thursday, over 700 new cases were recorded in Long Beach and the positivity rate for COVID-19 testing rose to 10.8%.