Beverly Hills has officially banned trick-or-treating for Halloween 2020, roughly one month after the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which oversees the city of Beverly Hills, revealed a similar policy before promptly walking it back.
Under the Beverly Hills City Council’s new urgency ordinance, residents will be prohibited from trick-or-treating, trunk-or-treating, and giving candy to anyone from outside their own household, the city revealed in a statement on Tuesday.
“While I know this is disappointing news, especially to our children, we believe this is the responsible approach to protect the health of the community,” said Beverly Hills Mayor Lester Friedman in a statement.
Residents are also prohibited from spraying each other with shaving cream on the evening of Halloween, unless it’s at a barbershop or inside of their own home, and certain intersections in the city will be closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
According to the city, people who violate the ordinance “shall be subject to the administrative citation process.” However, it’s unclear what exactly that administration citation process will entail.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Los Angeles County briefly rolled out a trick-or-treating ban earlier this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but subsequently moved trick-or-treating into a “not recommended” category instead of outright banning it.
At the time, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they would not write any pandemic-related citations for illicit trick-or-treating.
The city of Beverly Hills, which has historically been a draw for eager trick-or-treaters from surrounding areas, also announced on Tuesday that it will release a list of “safe” Halloween programming, such as virtual activities, at a future date.
While it’s not clear when those activities will be made available, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health released the following list of recommended Halloween activities back in September, well before Halloween:
- Virtual costume parties or pumpkin-carving contests
- Drive-by car parades, drive-by costume contests (for kids or for cars), drive-by halloween displays, or drive-up events where treat-bags are handed out, but without Trick-or-Treating.
- Halloween-themed drive-in movie theater screenings
- Halloween-themed restaurant visits (restaurants in the city are currently closed to indoor dining, so the restaurant must be open for outdoor service) or Halloween themed out-door art installations
- Halloween-themed decorations for inside and outside of the home
While Halloween falls on a Saturday this year — a rare treat — notably, only one of the recommended activities on the public health department’s list involves receiving candy.
According to The Los Angeles Times’ coronavirus data tracker, the county of Los Angeles, which has roughly 10 million residents, averaged 1,125 new coronavirus cases and 15.6 deaths per day over the last week. Furthermore, there are currently 723 patients hospitalized with a confirmed case of coronavirus, of which slightly fewer than 200 are in intensive care units. A total of 6,813 deaths in Los Angeles County have been attributed to coronavirus.