Los Angeles Film and TV Permits Plunged in December as COVID Surged

Two days after California Governor Gavin Newsom suddenly announced he was rescinding his Regional Stay-at-Home Order, deaths statewide and in L.A. County remained at near-record levels.

Another week during the coronavirus pandemic, another grim milestone for Los Angeles County.

No need to set the DVR. This Is Us will air a repeat on Tuesday, January 19, following a delay in production due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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.

Covid-19 outbreaks at workplaces have soared dramatically in recent weeks in response to rising community transmission, Los Angeles County health officials said today, warning that employers need to ensure their workers and customers are protected.

Production in Los Angeles hit new pandemic-era lows last month. FilmLA released its latest report examining filming in the greater Los Angeles area in the month of December, revealing that film permit requests dropped a steep 25 percent compared to the prior month.

Austin Beutner, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, said Monday that students will have to receive the inoculation once it is available before heading back into the classroom, according to a report.   The Los Angeles Times reported that Beutner compared the move to how schools already require vaccinations for measles and mumps.

“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.

“The very high numbers I will report today are, sadly, not a surprise,” said Los Angeles Public Health Chief Science Officer Dr. Paul Simon on Friday.

“The rate of new cases this month is translating into a disastrous increase in the number of people with severe COVID-19 symptoms being sent to our local hospitals,” said a statement from the Los Angeles County Public Health Department on Wednesday.

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.

On January 30th, Los Angeles County announced it had passed the dark milestone of 10,000 deaths related to Covid-19 in 2020. It was a grim end to a grim year. Now, less than a week later, the county has already passed 11,000 pandemic-related deaths.

By Jill SerjeantLOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The Grammy Awards ceremony due to take place on Jan. 31 has been postponed to March 21 because of the coronavirus surge in Los Angeles, organizers said on Tuesday.

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.

Los Angeles County hospitals are so overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients that EMS workers were told Monday to ration oxygen, according to reports.  The L.A.