‘IT’S TIME TO HUNKER DOWN’: Los Angeles mayor issues stay at home order, bans unnecessary walking

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti issued new coronavirus lockdown restrictions in hopes to slow the city’s soaring positivity rate.

“It’s time to hunker down,” Garcetti said in a Wednesday video announcing the new restrictions. 

“It’s time to cancel everything, and if it isn’t essential, don’t do it. Don’t meet up with others outside your household. Don’t host a gathering. Don’t attend a gathering.”  

The order, effective immediately, requires all city residents to stay home unless engaging in an activity deemed “essential.” 

Residents are prohibited from “all travel, including, without limitation, travel on foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, or public transit,” with limited exceptions.

Also included in the order: all businesses are required to cease operations, and public transportation and gatherings are prohibited – with the exception of socially distanced outdoor religious services and protests. 

Residents of Los Angeles, stay home…unless you’re protesting! 

The list of activities deemed essential is short: health care operations, grocery store visits, farming, social services, media and music production, plumbing and electricity work, and so on. 

“Our city is now close to a devastating tipping point, beyond which the number of hospitalized patients would start to overwhelm our hospital system, in turn risking needless suffering and death,” a public order from Garcetti says. 

“These unfortunate facts about the spread of COVID-19 in our city mean that we must resume some of the more restrictive measures we instituted in the spring.” 

The new stay-at-home order comes after the city’s public health department reported 414,185 total coronavirus cases, including nearly 6,000 on Wednesday alone, Fox News reports.