Lockdown in Los Angeles: LA County asks its 10 million residents to stay home 'as much as possible' while banning gatherings with people from outside their household - but churches and protests are exempt

Los Angeles County announced a new stay-home order Friday as coronavirus cases surged out of control in the nation´s most populous county, banning most gatherings but stopping short of a full shutdown on retail stores and other non-essential businesses.

The three-week order takes effect Monday. 

It came as the county of 10 million residents confirmed 24 new deaths and 4,544 new confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The county had set a threshold for issuing the stay-home order: an average of 4,500 cases a day over a five-day period, but hadn't expected to reach that level until next month.

However, the five-day average of new cases reported Friday was 4,751.

'We know we are asking a lot from so many who have been sacrificing for months on end,' Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. 

'Acting with collective urgency right now is essential if we want to put a stop to this surge.'

The order advises residents to stay home 'as much as possible' and to wear a face covering when they go out. 

It bans people from gathering with others who aren't in their households, whether publicly or privately.

Shoppers wearing face coverings do some Black Friday shopping in Commerce, California, on Friday. Los Angeles County on Friday announced a new stay-at-home order

Los Angeles County announced that it was reimposing a limited lockdown amid a surge in the number of coronavirus cases. In this November 18, 2020, file aerial photo, motorists wait in long lines to take a coronavirus test in a parking lot at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles

However, exceptions are made for church services and protests, 'which are constitutionally protected rights,' the county Department of Public Health said in a statement.

Indoor retail businesses, which make much of their profits during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons, are allowed to remain open but with just 20 per cent of capacity, including nail salons and other personal care services.

Restaurants in the county already were recently barred from in-person dining. They can still offer pickup, delivery and takeout services.

Beaches, trails, and parks will remain open, with safety requirements.

The order, which runs through December 20, is more modest than a statewide closure order issued by Governor Gavin Newsom in mid-March. 

That order closed schools and most businesses and severely restricted movement except for essential workers or to perform essential chores such as buying groceries or picking up medications.

The restrictions are said to have slowed the spread of COVID-19 and some restrictions were eased but the caseload picked up again in summer and in recent weeks has surged to record levels throughout most of the state - as well as throughout most states in the country.

Daily cases numbers in California have set records in recent days. Hospitalizations statewide have increased more than 80 per cent in the last two weeks. 

Nearly 2,000 people in the county are now hospitalized and the new order is part of an effort to prevent the county's health system from being overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, public health officials are bracing for a wave of cases that could follow gatherings at Thanksgiving. 

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, the nation's most populous, surpassed 383,000

Meanwhile, more than 7,600 residents of LA County have died after contracting COVID-19

Recent data also indicate a sharp spike in the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19

Officials say it usually takes two to three weeks for such serious cases to show but about 12 per cent of those infected could wind up hospitalized.

Despite its reputation for sprawl, Los Angeles has some of the densest neighborhoods in the United States. 

Many of those areas have multi-generational households where workers who don't have the luxury to telecommute are exposed to the virus at work or on public transportation and spread it to family members.

Case numbers in those communities have been higher and the virus has disproportionately affected more Latinos and black people.

With infections out of control, the other options for public officials to take are even more onerous and unlikely to be enacted in the US, said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.

China, for example, tested millions of people and enforced quarantines. Italy brought in the military to enforce a shutdown.

'It's hard to imagine how much further you can go in a society like we have,' he said.

'It's a balancing act, right? You want people to obey it but you don't want to make it so draconian that people are trying to figure out ways around it all the time.'

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the US has topped 13 million, as experts warn that  holiday gatherings will send that number soaring further.

The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States reached 90,000 on Friday after nearly doubling in the last month.

The rate of hospitalizations - now at the highest since the pandemic began - has pushed some medical centers beyond capacity. 

The rapid increase comes after weeks of rising infection rates across the country and sees the total number of infections since the pandemic began pushed beyond 13 million, with 264,000 deaths.

More than 90,000 people are currently being treated in hospitals across the U.S. Pictured, Doctors prepare to perform a tracheostomy procedure on a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit in Houston, Texas

Currently, Americans are dying from the disease at a rate of around 65 an hour but the rates of infection are likely to worsen as people who mingled with friends and relatives over Thanksgiving gradually get sick, health experts say.  

'This is the reality we face when COVID-19 is allowed to spread unchecked – ICUs at capacity, not enough health care workers available,' wrote New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in a tweet on Friday.

There were 880 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday in New Mexico. The state is under a lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus, with all non-essential businesses closed and residents told to stay home. 

A hospital in rural Curry County was the latest to reach capacity in its intensive care unit earlier this week, according to the county's Facebook page.

Many health experts and politicians pleaded with Americans to refrain from gathering for their traditional communal Thanksgiving feasts this year, warning that socializing between households would accelerate the rate of community transmission and push an already strained healthcare system to the brink.

Some abided by the public health guidance, spending their Thanksgiving on Thursday seeing their family over video calls. But others chose to travel anyway.

On the day before Thanksgiving, typically one of the busiest travel days of the year in the United States, more than 1.07 million people transited through U.S. airports - the most of any single day since the start of the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Nearly 6 million Americans traveled by air between Friday and Wednesday. A number that is however less than half that of the same period last year. Pictured, airline passengers seen wearing Hazmat Suits at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport on Thanksgiving

Nearly 6 million Americans traveled by air from Friday to Wednesday, it said, a number that is however less than half that of the same period last year.

State governors have also urged Americans to stay home on Black Friday, a traditionally busy holiday shopping day, encouraging them instead to take advantage of online deals or curbside pick-ups.

'Remember, skip the crowds and shop from home this Black Friday. Our local shops have curbside pickup options and need our support,' Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear wrote in a tweet on Friday.

National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay on Friday said his lobbying group forecast a record high in holiday spending this year, even with many Americans struggling financially as the pandemic as hit the economy and jobs.

'Consumers are out there,' he told Fox Business Network in an interview. 

He said people had shifted spending from travel, entertainment and other experience-based consumption to home and other material goods.

In an effort to mitigate the winter COVID-19 wave, more than 20 states have issued new restrictions, including mask mandates and limiting capacity of bars, restaurants and houses of worship.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's restrictions on religious gatherings on Wednesday, voting 5-4 late in favor of requests by a Roman Catholic Diocese and two Orthodox Jewish congregations for an injunction to block the capacity restrictions from being enforced.

Cuomo dismissed the ruling as 'irrelevant,' saying it related to houses of worship in specific areas that were no longer considered at high risk. However, the ruling could have broader implications for houses of worship appealing capacity restrictions elsewhere.

Earlier this week, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said the latest COVID-19 restrictions on gatherings in the nation's capital also applied to indoor religious services, reducing capacity from 100 people to 50 people, with a maximum 50%.

It was not immediately clear if the curbs would be challenged following the Supreme Court ruling.