California has been dealing with the COVID-19 restrictions for over a year and theme parks like Disneyland have been shut down for the same amount of time. A new bill proposal that was introduced, could pave the way for the parks to reopen sooner.
Currently, reopening plans for theme parks in California are tiered based on COVID testing levels. California uses a color-coded system for reopening. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s reopening schedule calls for smaller parks, less than 15,000 people to reopen when the state hits the “orange” tier.
Parks like Disneyland, SeaWorld, and other large parks won’t be able to open until the “yellow” level is achieved. The new proposal would allow all theme parks to open on the same level. There could still be capacity restrictions but at this point, anything is better than nothing.
Theme parks such as Disneyland and Six Flags have not only been shutdown but all of their employees have been out of work since the pandemic began and California closed. California is one of the strictest states in COVID restrictions but they also continue to see a rising number of cases.
California could look at the Florida model where all theme parks are open to the public with strict distancing and mask mandates are already in place. Disney World has been open now since last year and has slowly increased capacity based on state levels.
Should the bill fail to pass the California general assembly, there is no clear idea of when the larger parks will be permitted to reopen. California has yet to reach level “orange”.
For now, it’s all a wait and see and there is always the possibility that things will change after reopening. Including another shutdown in the future if things don’t improve.