A.M. Brief: County Urges Film Productions to “Strongly Consider” Pausing Operations

Public Health says film productions should hit the pause button, new quarantine rules for L.A. County, and no, that wasn’t technically snow you saw at the beach yesterday. Finally, some good news regarding a local institution. It’s the last Tuesday of the year. Here is your news. Take it!

Morning News Rundown

On Christmas Eve, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health sent a letter to film industry contacts urging productions to “strongly consider” pausing operations for at least a few weeks in light of the current wave of COVID-19 infections spiking throughout the region. The letter also stated that traveling for productions was ill-advised. [Variety]

Whether by land, by sea, or by air, any residents who travel outside the county are now supposed to quarantine for 10 days upon their return, according to new guidelines issued by Public Health on Monday. However, the announcement did not specify any penalties for violators. [CBS Los Angeles]

If you saw white slush on South Bay beaches yesterday and wondered if snow had fallen in Los Angeles, take note that, technically speaking, it was not snow. Rather, the icy residue was the result of hail storms that accompanied the winter storm that hit SoCal early Monday morning. [KTLA]

Yesterday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said that he expects state officials to formally extend the state’s regional Stay-at-Home orders sometime today. Regional ICU capacity in Southern California remained at 0% on Monday. [ABC 7]

New reporting by the L.A. Times paints a harrowing picture of our county hospitals right now. Ambulances are being turned away, while overcrowding has forced staff to place patients in gift shops and conference rooms. In some cases, patients in need of critical care waited up to 18 hours to get into the intensive care unit at USC Medical Center. [L.A. Times]

Finally, some good news: The Bob Baker Marionette Theater’s fundraiser had garnered enough support to fund the theater through 2021. The puppeteer troupe hopes to resume in-person performances sometime later next year, but the $365,000 they’ve raised will keep the business afloat in the interim. [LA Magazine]