Disneyland reopening delayed, new date undetermined

The Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California will not be reopening on July 17 as had originally been planned.

Disney said in a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter) that it could not get state clearance in time for that date for either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park, which have been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Downtown Disney shopping and dining district will still reopen as planned on July 9. The unions for park employees had been pushing back against the reopening plans, saying it was too soon for them to feel safe, in a June 17 open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom. 

"The State of California has now indicated that it will not issue theme park reopening guidelines until sometime after July 4," Disney said in today's statement. "Given the time required for us to bring thousands of cast members back to work and restart our business, we have no choice but to delay the reopening of our theme parks and resort hotels until we receive approval from government officials. Once we have a clearer understanding of when guidelines will be released, we expect to be able to communicate a reopening date." 

Per Deadline, California today reported a record jump of 7,149 cases of COVID-19 just over the last 24 hours. As of this writing, the state currently has over 190,000 positive cases, with over 5,500 deaths statewide. Florida and Texas also saw their largest spikes to date with over 5,500 new cases each. The country as a whole saw a massive spike of 34,313 new cases, the highest since the record of 34,865 back on April 3.

Despite this, Florida's Walt Disney World is still slated for a July 11 reopening, as it stands now, with EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood Studios following on July 15.