The city of Long Beach, which has its own health department, parted ways with Los Angeles County and immediately moved to orange-tier rules on Wednesday.
The city generally aligned with the state's guidelines, including the elimination of capacity limits at retail stores. But Los Angeles County -- which was officially in the less-restrictive orange tier of the state's COVID-19 business-reopening blueprint as of Wednesday -- will wait until Monday before easing economic restrictions, and some rules will be stricter than state guidelines.
The move to orange means more capacity at retail stores, movie theaters, restaurants and other attractions, along with an array of other adjustments, including the reopening -- outdoors only -- of bars that don't serve food.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said that even though the county has officially moved into the orange tier, it will maintain more restrictive red-tier-level rules until 12:01 a.m. Monday.
LA, Orange counties eligible to advance into orange tier, allowing businesses to expand capacity