NEW POSTING: Previous one not complete
By TREVIN BRANDT
Staff Writer
On Tuesday, October 20th, California Governor Gavin Newsom released the long awaited guidelines that can allow theme parks to reopen.
California’s reopening strategy is to place every county in a color tier based on how many new cases they receive per day per 100,000 people. The purple tier, or “widespread tier” means the county is receiving more than 7 cases per 100,000 people per day. It is the most restrictive tier, only allowing essential business to operate indoors, while everything else must operate outdoors or not at all. The red tier, or “substantial tier” is defined between 4 and 7 new cases per 100,000 people per day. It allows a little more activity like movie theaters and schools to operate, but it is still considered unsafe. The orange tier or “moderate tier” is between 1 and 3.9 new cases. Many places are allowed to reopen in this tier with the exception of a few large gathering events. The last tier is the yellow tier or “minimal tier.” For a county to obtain this tier, they must gain under 1 new case per 100,000 people. This is the tier every county wants to be in. It allows virtually every business to reopen under safety precautions that will remain in place until a vaccine is widespread throughout the nation.
With all of this being said, the new theme park guidelines are as follows: Small theme parks may reopen outdoor attractions with 25% capacity to their county only in the orange tier. Small theme parks are defined as a theme park that has a capacity of less than 15,000 in normal times. Most popular theme parks such as Magic Mountain, Universal Studios, Disneyland Resort, and Knotts Berry Farm do not fit this criteria. They have a different set of rules.
Large theme parks may only open in the yellow tier at 25% capacity. Many theme park officials have lashed out at Governor Newsom for creating unattainable guidelines. Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock blasted Gavin Newsom for, “mandating arbitrary guidelines that [the state] knows are unworkable.” Universal Studios President Karen Irwin responded to the upsetting guidelines by saying, “Our employees are ready to go back to work and the fact that they won’t be able to do so until well into next year is shameful.” While it may seem difficult to get these theme park counties into the yellow tier, it is far from impossible. San Francisco county which has a population of 883,000 people obtained the yellow tier just a few days ago! This means that in total, the county is receiving under 8 positive cases per day.
Orange County which is home to Disneyland Resort and Knotts Berry Farm is currently in the red tier. They are receiving 4.6 new cases per 100k, per day. They are on the verge of entering the orange tier, which is still one tier away from yellow. Orange County’s population is 3.17 million, which means they need to bring their total amount of positive tests down from 146 per day to 31 per day. Los Angeles County, home of Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios, is currently in the purple tier with 10.1 new cases. With a population of 10 million, they must bring their total positive cases down from 1,010 to 100. This means Disneyland and Knotts are probably going to reopen before Magic Mountain and Universal even have the slightest chance.
The best way to diminish the spread of Covid-19 is to wear a mask and socially distance ourselves in public. If both Orange and Los Angeles County do this for a little while longer, we may get to see our state’s beloved theme parks open again.