Disneyland and Disneyland California Adventure will delay their phased reopening, which was scheduled to begin on July 17, Deadline reports. Both parks have been closed since March.
The announcement was made on Wednesday, hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed the state had a record 7,149 new coronavirus cases the previous day. Disneyland will now wait for "approval from government officials" before revealing a new reopening date.
"The State of California has now indicated that it will not issue theme park reopening guidelines until sometime after July 4," the statement reads. "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."
Disneyland has also received pushback over their reopening plans from the Coalition of Resort Labor Unions, which represents about 17,000 of the parks and resorts employees. A protest was planned for Saturday morning amid concerns about the workers' safety and the well-being of park and hotel guests in wake of the recent surge in coronavirus cases in California. In addition to sending a letter to Newsom requesting that he delay the park's reopening, a Change.org petition urging for a later date has received over 50,000 signatures.
Disney World in Orlando, however, hasn't budged from their plan for a phased reopening next month, starting with Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom parks on July 11, followed by EPCOT and Hollywood Studios four days later. Florida had a record 4,049 new coronavirus cases on Saturday.
July 17 served as a symbolic date for Disneyland. The park opened 65 years ago on that day.
