Coronavirus: Film and TV productions in Los Angeles urged to “strongly consider” shutting down

On Friday afternoon, as the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors met behind closed doors to discuss new, stricter shutdown orders; as Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Governor Governor Gavin Newsom appeared together to try and jumpstart the region’s lagging vaccination efforts; one key reason for the urgency of those efforts became clear.

As Los Angeles's public health officials are calling the city's current COVID-19 surge — in which 10 people are testing positive for the virus every minute — the "worst disaster our county has experienced in decades," Hollywood's top studios have begun their return to production in L.A.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorFilm permit applications in the city and county of Los Angeles declined steeply in December, dropping 24.9 percent from November levels to 613 permits. FilmLA reported Tuesday.This is the second straight month that FilmLA has seen permit requests drop, as production levels that picked up after the pandemic shutdown began to drop again.

“This very clearly is the latest surge for the winter holidays and New Year’s.” That was Los Angeles Public Health Chief Science Officer Dr. Paul Simon on Friday. “It’s likely to continue over the next week or two. We do expect these numbers continue to be high over the next couple weeks,” he said.

With production stalled in Los Angeles amid the city's latest COVID-19 surge, the industry is wrestling with when it'll be able to return to work safely in one of its most popular filming regions. The major studios and streamers have paused production on the bulk of their L.A.-based projects, most of which were already on a hiatus over the holidays, marking the town's biggest shutdown since March when the virus first began to spread in the U.S.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Grammy Awards ceremony that was set for Jan. 31 has been postponed because of the coronavirus surge in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone magazine and Variety reported on Tuesday.

Nine and a half months after all Hollywood production was shut down at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., filming in Los Angeles once again is at a standstill.

Lionsgate Television is the latest TV studio to keep its Los Angeles-based series dark amid an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections and Covid-19 deaths in LA County.

Los Angeles County ended 2020 breaking Covid-19 records and brought in the new year doing just the same.

Universal Television has joined CBS Studios and Warner Bros. TV in pushing the return to production after the current holiday hiatus for shows based in Los Angeles that had been scheduled to resume filming this coming week, the week of Jan. 4..

As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Los Angeles, “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” has scrapped plans to resume production next week.

LOS ANGELES—Hospitals in Los Angeles County are reporting a surge in COVID-19 patients and some have been forced to temporarily cease ambulance arrivals and use gift shops as makeshift treatment rooms, a report Tuesday said. The Los Angeles Times reported that Los Angeles County is experiencing its most challenging moment since the onset of the outbreak.The paper said one person died from the virus every 10 minutes in the county on Christmas Eve.

Ellise Shafer administratorThe Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is urging film productions in the area to “strongly consider” pausing their operations for a few weeks amid a continued surge in COVID-19 cases.Per FilmLA, in an email sent to the county’s film industry contacts on Dec.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is urging the film and TV industry to consider pausing production for a few weeks during the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases throughout the county. “Although music, TV and film productions are allowed to operate,” the health department said, “we ask you to strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in Covid cases.

A Los Angeles EMT on an LAX-bound flight tested negative for coronavirus after providing CPR to a man who had died of COVID-19, according to reports. EMT Tony Aldapa was on an LAX inbound flight when a 69-year-old passenger went into cardiac arrest.

Southern California authorities continued to investigate Wednesday after a man allegedly shot a woman to death inside Kohl’s department store in Los Angeles County Tuesday evening, just days before Christmas, during an alleged domestic incident and fled the scene.