Once a virus epicenter, Los Angeles set to reopen - partly

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The last time Brittney Valles welcomed diners into Guerrilla Tacos, her restaurant was open for a mere five hours in July before being ordered to close again because of the surging coronavirus pandemic.

So, it’s little surprise Valles is not rushing to open her doors now that Los Angeles County has given the green light to begin reopening more businesses that have been shuttered most of the last year.

“I’m antsy but optimistic,” Valles said. “I’m curious how this is going to roll out. We’re certainly not out of the woods at all. We’re just entering a new area of the woods.”

Monday's long-awaited reopening of many of the hardest-hit businesses in the nation’s most populous county and epicenter of California’s worst COVID-19 surge this winter is being met with a mix of elation and hesitation.

A glimpse of normal is finally possible with the return of inside restaurant dining and the reopening of movie theaters, indoor gyms and museums. But it will be anything but normal. Capacities will be greatly limited, cautions will be put in place, warnings will be given.

Nevertheless, doors will be opening to spaces patrons haven't been inside for most of the last year.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti closed bars and restaurants last March and days later California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued the nation's first statewide shutdown. Grocery stores remained open, restaurants could offer takeout, but cinemas, fitness centers, hair and nail salons, amusement parks and scores of other types of businesses were closed.

Improvements in case numbers in late spring led to a brief reopening that quickly came to a close July 1 as another surge of the deadly virus threatened to overwhelm hospitals.

When the state created a countywide system of...