LA mayor authorises cutting off water and electricity to homes to stop large coronavirus parties

Eric Garcetti says gatherings ‘ripple throughout our entire community because the virus can quickly and easily spread’

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has authorised the city’s Department of Water and Power (DWP) to shut off utility services for houses where large gatherings are held, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, Mr Garcetti told reporters that he had become concerned by reports of large gatherings in residence’s in the city, which he said had “essentially become nightclubs in the hills.”

The mayor confirmed that from Friday, the DWP will be given permission to shut off electricity and water in “egregious” cases where large gatherings have taken place.

“If the LAPD responds and verifies that a large gathering is occurring at a property, and we see these properties reoffending time and time again, they will provide notice and initiate the process to request that shut off service within the next 48 hours,” the mayor said.

Under California governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order, indoor gatherings of more than 25 people are banned in order to stop the spread of Covid-19, as the state has seen record daily coronavirus totals over the last few weeks.

California has recorded more than 533,000 Covid-19 cases, as at least 9,866 people have died after contracting the virus since the pandemic began, while Los Angeles has seen the most coronavirus cases of any county in the US, with at least 198,000 confirmed cases and 4,825 deaths.

Numerous house parties that breach this mandate have been taking place over the last month, the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this week.

On Monday, a gathering of more than 200 people at a mansion on Mulholland Drive ended after a fatal shooting and last week there were reports of multiple parties that breached the governor’s mandate at various residences in the city.

“The consequences of these large parties ripple far beyond just those parties,” Mr Garcetti warned. “They ripple throughout our entire community because the virus can quickly and easily spread.”

Mr Garcetti’s announcement came a few hours after Los Angeles City councilman David Ryu introduced a motion at a meeting that he claimed would help tackle “Covid party houses”.

The councilman argued that parties with large gatherings are in violation of Covid-19 public health orders, according to CBS News.

“Despite a pandemic that has killed thousands in Los Angeles, some homeowners are choosing to put everyone at risk by renting out their homes to massive house parties,” Mr Ryu said at the meeting on Wednesday morning.

“This is irresponsible bordering on deadly, and it must be stopped,” he added, before he suggested that a possible penalty could be shutting off utilities for those not following the executive order.

Despite the timing of the comments there was no indication that this influenced the mayor’s announcement later on in the day.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also announced on Wednesday that 60 per cent of new Covid-19 cases in the city are coming from people between the ages of 18 and 49, according to NPR.

The department’s director, Barbara Ferrer, told reporters: “We can and will one day get to the point where hanging out with a group of friends is possible,” but added that “we aren’t there yet.”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, in the US as a whole, some 4.8 million people have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 158,300.