COVID Surge Prompts Return To Virtual Meetings For Claremont

CLAREMONT, CA — Residents will have to watch City Council meetings from the comfort of their homes as the city will hold all public meetings virtually again amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County.

The city will hold its meetings virtually until further notice, officials said. The move applies to both the City Council and city commissions.

Claremont officials initially began to hold their meetings virtually in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic but moved to a hybrid format in December 2021. The hybrid format allowed a limited number of people to attend the meetings in person, city officials said.

However, COVID-19 cases began to surge across the country because of the highly infectious omicron variant.

COVID-19 cases shot up in California after the holidays, with the average daily case count reaching 52,855 on Wednesday, according to The New York Times. The count signifies a 522 percent increase from the previous 14 days.

In Los Angeles County, the area saw a 603 percent increase on Wednesday with a 21,037 daily average case count, the Times reported.