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Shut Down of Los Angeles COVID-19 Test Site for Film Shoot Sparks Social Media Backlash

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti was in the hot seat Monday night with more than few Twitter users after it was reported that a COVID-19 testing location at Union Station will be shut down Tuesday to accommodate filming for the upcoming remake of “She’s All That.”

On Monday, people who had scheduled a COVID-19 test appointment for Tuesday, Dec. 1 at Union Station were notified via email that the appointments had been canceled due to an “event”. The email didn’t reveal the nature of the event, but it was reported by Deadline early Monday evening to be “He’s All That,” a remake of the 1999 film “She’s All That.”

Representatives of FilmLA, Miramax, which produces the film, or the office of the Mayor of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to requests for comment from TheWrap. But according to the Los Angeles Times, both Garcetti’s office and Film LA say they were unaware that the filming would lead to the testing site being temporarily shut down, and Garcetti’s representatives say the city is trying to reverse the decision.

Also Read: LA County Implements 'Targeted' Safer-at-Home Order Amid COVID Surge

FilmLA went further, telling LA Times “All we know at this hour is that this decision wasn’t made by FilmLA or the City’s film permit approver LAPD, nor was it sought by the production company seeking to film at Union Station.”

On Monday night, a follow up statement was sent to people whose accounts were canceled by Andrea Garcia, press secretary to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In the statement, Garcia said that 504 people had scheduled appoints to be tested for the illness at the Union Station testing location, and their appointments would be honored at one of the 14 other testing sites. In addition, Garcia said “we are hoping to reopen the Union Station site’s operations tomorrow.”

“Earlier today we learned that our Union Station testing kiosk was unexpectedly closed in advance of tomorrow’s appointments. As soon as this was brought to our attention, we contacted the 504 people scheduled for a test on December 1st at Union Station to let them know that their appointment would be honored at any of the other 14 city testing locations, including another mobile testing site located at the North Hollywood Metro Station accessible by the Metro transit system,” Garcia’s statement said.

“In addition, we are hoping to reopen the Union Station site’s operations tomorrow. We remain committed to providing free tests and are scheduled to test more than 38,000 people tomorrow. We have administered more than 2.5 million tests to Angelenos since March 20. Our network of testing centers and mobile testing pop up facilities reaches the entire City of Los Angeles, and we will continue to monitor new surge areas to make sure obtaining a test is as easy as possible.”

Also Read: 'Godzilla vs Kong' vs COVID: Streamers Vie for Legendary's Monster Movie

However, the hours-long delay between the news and any formal statement, and the fact that the shut down of a testing site was set to happen just one day after the start of a sweeping new stay-at-home order for Los Angeles county, had a lot of people calling Garcetti and the city of Los Angeles directly on Twitter. See a sampling below.

More to come..

Related stories from TheWrap:

Jason Blum Tests Positive for COVID-19 a Week After His Children Did

Jake Paul Denies Calling COVID ‘a Hoax’ — So Reporter Produces the Receipts

LA County Implements ‘Targeted’ Safer-at-Home Order Amid COVID Surge

Source: the wrap feed