It’s not like residents of Los Angeles County are basking in freedoms right now, but it doesn’t take much reading of the tea leaves to realize things are going to get a lot worse. Probably very soon.

With movie theaters closed, indoor dining banned, health clubs and gyms not allowed to open, and even basketball rims at public parks and volleyball nets on the beaches still not allowed to go back up, county officials have taken a lot of what Angelenos have grown to love out of residents’ lives. The thought was it was supposed to slow down the spread of coronavirus, but officials say the numbers keep going up, and the L.A. Times reported Monday that the county Department of Public Health is expected to pitch a series of strict recommendations to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. One progressive Democratic county supervisor, Sheila Kuehl, said a curfew could be the one thing that might be next, regardless of how much further it would damage businesses throughout Southern California.

“After people drink for a while, perhaps they lose inhibition and judgment and so possibly a curfew might help,” Kuehl said.

Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the public health director for L.A. County (who does not have a medical degree but has a Ph.D.), said authorities are also kicking around the idea of reducing occupancy levels in offices and getting tougher on other local orders.

“I think it makes sense to do everything we can to encourage people not to be out and about, not to be mingling with others,” Ferrer said. “And if we can’t make those choices ourselves, you’re forced to sort of look at, structurally, how do you make it harder for people to intermingle, particularly in activities where we know there’s going to be spread.”

The L.A. Times reported that new cases of COVID-19 topped 3,000 for two consecutive days over the weekend.

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