On Sunday the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health announced a prohibition of in-person dining at restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars effective Wednesday at 10 p.m. The order is expected to last three weeks.

The change to the health order had been anticipated for several days as new COVID-19 cases in the county remained alarmingly high while hospitalizations also increased. Restaurants, breweries, wineries and bars can continue to offer take-out, delivery and drive-through meals.

Earlier in the week health officials enacted a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in an effort to blunt the rise in cases, but said a more restrictive order would be implemented as soon as the five-day average of new cases exceeded 4,000. If the daily average of cases reaches 4,500, then a three-week stay at home order will be announced.

“Public Health reminds everyone to stay home as much as possible for the next two to three weeks to change the trajectory of surging cases and save lives. COVID-19 can be unintentionally spread to other people unless we all practice the simple safety precautions that prevent spread,” the county said in a news release. 

The county confirmed nine deaths and 2,718 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and the five-day average is 4,097 new cases.

There are 1,401 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized, 26 percent of whom are in the ICU.  Over the past 7 days, the number of people hospitalized with the virus increased by nearly 35 percent.  

Since the beginning of the pandemic, public health has identified 364,520 cumulative cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 7,438 deaths.