SoCal’s Baseball Stadiums and Disneyland Can Reopen With Limited Capacity in April

On Friday, the State of California gave the green light for sports fans to attend opening day at Angel Stadium on April 1, and Dodger Stadium on April 9, but with limited capacity. The same goes for theme parks, including Disneyland, which has been closed for one year, and reopened in January 2021 as a mass vaccination site.

Attendance at opening day and theme parks are only available to California residents, with restrictions on selling tickets to anyone living outside of the Golden State, reports ESPN. Disneyland temporarily closed to visitors on March 13, 2020.

At the moment, the San Francisco Giants are California’s only pro team allowed to begin its season with fans in the stands based on the county’s infection rate and other metrics, according to the Los Angeles Times. The other counties that host MLB GAMES — Los Angeles, Orange, Contra Costa, and San Diego — remain in the restrictive purple tier, though they could eventually allow up to 20 percent of stadium capacity by early April. In the case of Dodger Stadium, that would allow up to 11,200 fans in stands the first home game on April 9. California health director Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state is able to take these measures due to the decline in new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, and an increase in vaccinated residents.

In other news:

• On Sunday night, Oprah interviewed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on CBS. In the bombshell interview, the couple dropped some serious accusations, while Markle dropped a local tidbit of her own history. Her first job in the early 1990s was at a Sherman Oaks frozen yogurt shop called Humphrey Yogart.
• After a bold mid-afternoon robbery where a woman was shot in the leg while dining at Il Pastaio, the Beverly Hills Police Department will increase security with armed and private guards, reports KTLA-5. Another woman was trampled in the chaos, and spoke out in another interview on ABC-7.
• A new CDC study reports that in-house dining bans and mask mandates made a difference in decreasing COVID-19 transmission. The Los Angeles Times reports that coronavirus rates fell significantly when these safeguards were implemented, and rose when restaurants reopened.
• In another report by UCLA and UC Berkeley, approximately 150,000 fast food workers in Los Angeles County are at an elevated risk of COVID-19 exposure.
• PureWow curated a list of women LA chefs whose restaurants are still open, including Wood Spoon’s Natalia Pereira’s, n/naka’s Niki Nakayama, and longtime chef Suzanne Goin. Take a look at the full list right here.
• California to allow limited return of fans to MLB parks, other outdoor sporting events [ESPN]