SACRAMENTO, California – California lifted some coronavirus restrictions on outdoor sports and entertainment venues on Friday, paving the way for fans to attend Major League Baseball opening games and for theme parks like Disneyland for the first time in to open more than a year. year.
The rules, announced Friday by Gavin Newsom’s government, take effect April 1, but apply only to people living in California. Baseball teams, event organizers and theme parks are not allowed to sell tickets to anyone living outside the state as public health officials try to restrict the mixture while continuing to vaccinate coronavirus.
The San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Angels and Oakland A’s have all announced that they will have fans in the stands for the opening day on April 1st. The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are both starting their seasons on the road and have said they will announce their plans later. .
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s top public health official, said the state is now taking action as the number of new cases of coronavirus and hospitalizations decreases while the number of people receiving the vaccine increases. California on Thursday reported 4,659 new cases of coronavirus, while just over 3 million people were fully vaccinated, or about 10% of the population aged 16 and older.
“Today’s announcement focuses on embedding some of the compelling science on how the virus behaves, and how activities if done in a certain way can reduce the risk,” Ghaly said.
Despite President Joe Biden saying he will have enough vaccine doses for all adults by the end of May, government officials said Friday they could not estimate when the next group of people would be eligible for shots. Supplies are expected to remain flat for several weeks, Marta Green, who is with the state agency, charged with vaccination.
California divides its provinces into four color-coded levels based on the spread of the virus. The purple level is the most restrictive, allowing the least activity due to COVID-19 distribution, followed by red, orange and yellow. Attendance limits for outdoor sports and other events are based on the level of a province.
Outdoor sports are limited to 100 people in the press level. The limits increase to 20% in the red level, 33% in the orange level and 67% in the yellow level.
Teams and event organizers can only sell tickets in the press level. In the other levels, teams and organizers can sell tickets to anyone living in California. No concessions will be allowed in the press level, while concession sales in others are only available on seats.
The application of the rules will be left to premises. Ghaly and Dee Dee Myers, director of the governors’ office for business and economic development, said organizers would have to sell tickets in advance and could take cross-tests to confirm hometowns to help with contact tracing, if necessary.
Myers acknowledged that some people would try to defeat the system, but she said officials hoped people would respect the guidelines.
Attendance at indoor events, including NBA games and concerts, is still prohibited. Myers said it is much harder to devise rules for indoor events.
“We will continue to work on coming back in the next few weeks and trying to update it so that we can provide more visibility and a way forward for more businesses,” Myers said.
The announced Oakland A fans will be seated in two or four seats, and tickets are only available in the MLB Ballpark app.
Fans can order concessions on their phones and deliver them on their seats. No backhand is allowed, and teams will not accept cash in the stadium. People who do not have debit cards can buy one with cash at a limited number of places in the venue.
Richard Haick of San Pablo, California, has already purchased ticket vouchers for the return of the Oakland A and said he hopes to take his 10-year-old son to a game soon.
“It’s nice to have, even in a reduced capacity, a degree of normalcy,” says Haick, a 45-year-old photographer.
Theme parks can open at 15% in the red level and the attendance limits increase as the virus rate decreases. Again, only people living in California can buy tickets. Indoor rides at outdoor parks will be allowed because they are usually short and allow for proper spacing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.