LA health department urges film industry to ‘strongly consider pausing work’

The Los Angeles Department of Public Health is urging filmmakers to pause production in the Hollywood area amid a regional spike in coronavirus cases.

In a Dec. 24 email to industry contacts, circulated by FilmLA, the county’s nonprofit film office, the health department said “although music, TV and film productions are allowed to operate, we ask you to strongly consider pausing work for a few weeks during this catastrophic surge in COVID cases.”

“Identify and delay higher risk activities, and focus on lower-risk work for now, if at all possible,” the alert added.

The email also asked FilmLA to remind filmmakers that they are advised against traveling for production purposes, which is currently allowed within the state but increases the likelihood of multiple people sharing vehicle space or uncontrolled indoor settings.

The email called the new precautions particularly important with a “light at the end of the tunnel” in the form of two approved vaccines, but warned that the Los Angeles area’s hospitals are near capacity.

Some hospitals in Los Angeles County have reportedly been forced to use conference rooms and gift shops to treat patients. The county had a total of 1,449 intensive care patients and 54 available intensive care beds as of Monday.

The county has seen a total of 719,833 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 9,482 deaths since the pandemic began.

California ordered production to shut down statewide March 20 before allowing filming to resume in June with restrictions.

Earlier this month, shooting on a remake of the 1999 romantic comedy “She’s All That” shut down the city’s Union Station, one of its major coronavirus testing sites, according to a local ABC affiliate. FilmLA said that when it was issued the permit it had not been aware the station was being used as a testing site.