Both Palm Springs libraries will close starting Friday, along with all upcoming VillegeFest dates and adult recreational programs, due to the coronavirus, it was announced Thursday.
The famed Palm Springs Tram was also being shut down.
City officials on Thursday released a list of changes the city would be undertaking until further notice to guard against the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
The move comes after health officials on Thursday announced that a sixth novel coronavirus case had been confirmed in Riverside County. Like the other five, it was located in the Coachella Valley.
The following changes were announced:
— City Council and Planning Commission meetings will now take place at the Palm Springs Convention Center “where social distance protocols can be more easily implemented,” according to a city statement.
— All boards and commissions, except for the Planning Commission, will be suspended.
— All ONE-PS neighborhood meetings and events have been postponed or canceled.
— Gatherings of 250 people or more will be canceled or postponed.
— Upcoming dates for VillageFest, the city’s weekly Thursday street fair in downtown, will be canceled.
— Adult recreation programs will also be suspended.
— Beginning Friday, the Palm Springs Public Library and the Welwood Library will shutter.
Cathedral City officials on Thursday announced the annual State of the City address set for next week was rescheduled to May 28. Other community events in the city were canceled as well.
Other larger-scale events have been canceled or put on pause in the days since the first confirmed locally acquired novel coronavirus case was reported in the Coachella Valley over the weekend. Organizers of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells quickly canceled the tennis event, which was set to begin this week.
On Tuesday, organizers of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival and the Stagecoach country music festival — which annually attract tens of thousands of attendees to the Coachella Valley — were forced to reschedule to October dates due to an order by the county’s top public heath official.