Disneyland slams California's 'unworkable, devastating' reopening plan
Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG
Disneyland is blasting a new plan that would allow California theme parks to eventually reopen.
The state's health officials released a series of re-opening requirements on Tuesday, while the iconic theme park – which has been shuttered since March amid the COVID-19 pandemic – released a counter statement calling the new requirements “unworkable” and dubbed the shutdown “irreparably devastating” to Southern California businesses.
"We have proven that we can responsibly reopen, with science-based health and safety protocols strictly enforced at our theme park properties around the world," said Disneyland Resort president Ken Potrock. "Nevertheless, the State of California continues to ignore this fact, instead mandating arbitrary guidelines that it knows are unworkable and that hold us to a standard vastly different from other reopened businesses and state-operated facilities. Together with our labor unions we want to get people back to work, but these State guidelines will keep us shuttered for the foreseeable future, forcing thousands more people out of work, leading to the inevitable closure of small family-owned businesses, and irreparably devastating the Anaheim/Southern California community."
According to the L.A. Times, the protocols would allow "a large park" to reopen once COVID-19 transmission rates in its respective county fall enough to reach the state's lowest "Tier 4" level (where there's only one new case of COVID-19 per 100,000 residents per day allowed).
Disneyland included a quote from the director of the Orange County Health Care Agency speculating that the county probably won't reach Tier 4 until next summer "hopefully."
Theme parks reopened in Florida four months ago, including Walt Disney World, using capacity limits, social distancing measures, and face-covering requirements. Disney parks in several other global cities (such as Paris) have reopened as well. Last July, health officials in Flordia claimed there has been no virus spread due to the open theme parks, but it's unclear if that's still the case. Whereas Disneyland recently announced plans to lay off 28,000 workers due to the shutdown.
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