NEWS: Indoor Dining Set to Return to Orange and LA Counties Soon

Disneyland is set to host a ticketed event inside of one of its theme parks, the theme parks themselves are aiming to reopen in late April, and NOW more change may be on the way.

Carthay Circle

Currently, Orange County is in the purple or most restrictive reopening tier in California, where things like indoor dining are prohibited. But, that’s all about to change!!

Right now, California operates under a tiered system where counties are placed into different tiers based on various factors including their testing positivity rates and other things. Each tier comes with its own set of restrictions.

©COVID19.ca.gov

Recently, the state of California announced some changes coming to its tier system that could make it easier for counties to move into lower tiers with different restrictions once certain vaccination levels have been reached.

Downtown Disney Signage

Specifically, under the updated rules, once California hits 2 million distributions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to hard-hit communities, a county can move from the Purple Tier (most restrictive) to the Red Tier (next less restrictive below Purple) if they have a daily rate of new COVID-19 cases of 10 per 100,000. (That’s an easier metric to meet than before. Previously, a county had to reach 7 per 100,000 to go to the Red Tier).

Orange County (where Disneyland is located) is in the Purple Tier, but it is now set to move down to the Red Tier very soon.

Disney California Adventure Carthay Circle

According to Deadline, the California Department of Public Health announced today that 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to “Californians in some of the state’s hardest-hit communities.” Because of this, the adjustments to the tiers and change in the thresholds needed to go to the Red Tier will kick in.

So, what does this all mean? Well, it means that under these new rules, quite a few counties in California can move from the Purple Tier to the Red Tier. Those counties include Los Angeles and Orange County — Orange County being where Disneyland is located. This change will take effect on Sunday, March 14th.

Restaurants at Downtown Disney

In the Red Tier, counties are allowed to open movie theaters, museums, and zoos at 25% capacity. Also, indoor dining will be allowed at 25% capacity. Theme parks and outdoor live performances (like concerts and sports events) can also open at 15% capacity. There are other specific restrictions as well beyond these capacity limits.

Disneyland has indicated that they are aiming for an opening in late April. But, with indoor dining being allowed, we could see some more immediate changes at restaurants in the Downtown Disney District. We’ll keep an eye out for more details and let you know what we see.

Click here to see what things will be suspended when Disneyland opens.

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The post NEWS: Indoor Dining Set to Return to Orange and LA Counties Soon first appeared on the disney food blog.