"Everybody is struggling," co-owner of Rise-N-Shine Cafe, Melinda Ratz told Xinhua Tuesday. "We used the first lockdown to pivot to outside dining and that kept us going. But how are we going to keep the business alive with no outdoor dining either?"

The small coffee shop in Sunland, a community 10 km north of downtown Los Angeles, is Ratz's family-owned business. It has managed to survive a costly pivot from inside family-style dining to outside dining, but was knocked for a loop by the city's stay-at-home order recently.

After they were forced to shut indoor dining rooms in the spring, many eateries like Rise-N-Shine got a lifeline when officials allowed them to serve outdoors, often in patio areas and makeshift dining halls set up in parking lots, sidewalks and streets.

But on Monday, when confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported by the populous county in the United States exceeded 400,000, the latest order was put into effect, under which all public and private gatherings with someone outside Angelinos' own households were prohibited while occupancy limits at businesses would stand at 35 percent for essential retail and 20 percent for non-essential retail like outdoor malls and libraries.

And as early as last Wednesday, another order issued by the county has restricted restaurants, along with breweries, wineries and bars, to takeout and delivery for the first time since May. It remained in place on Tuesday and will last for at least three weeks.

The cafe is a favorite haunt for fire-fighters and first responders, who have hung in there supporting the local family-owned restaurant through the tough changes at the restaurant that COVID-19 regulations have required. But it's taken its toll on everyone.

"These guys (the owners) are good people. This lockdown may be necessary, but it's a real shame to see how hard they've been hit by this. And it makes it hard for us able to grab a nice, hot meal and wind down when we need it," lamented Joe, a firefighter and frequent patron of the cafe.

Sarkis and Gaya Garibyan of Sunland have also had to struggle to adapt their business to the pandemic and the lockdowns once more.

Sarkis told Xinhua that initially, his company, Stonehaven Properties, had a couple of important sales drop out of escrow when COVID-19 hit in March. Buyers had no idea what was going to happen to real estate values and were hesitant to make big financial commitments with a pandemic raging.

"But buyers have a better sense of what's going on now and aren't so nervous," he told Xinhua. "So, sales have actually increased since the pandemic hit and my business is doing ok," he said.

"But my wife's business, a Color Me Mine retail pottery outlet, has really been hit hard by the pandemic and the lockdowns. People are worried about how safe it is to work inside and that's affected her business."

After months of delay, his wife was finally able to get a permit from the city authority to open an outdoor section for customers to work on their pottery projects, which is the only real hope to keeping her business alive. But now they are hit with another lockdown and everything is up in the air again.

Brad Plows, an animator in Hollywood, is also concerned with how the new regs would affect his job. "I've just gone back to work and have been getting a few jobs, but this new lockdown will affect production and that ripples down to me. Some people think the lockdown is causing more problems than it solves."

However, public health experts and the local government said they have no choice but to implement more restrictions to curb the fatal disease.

Los Angeles County hit another grim COVID-19 milestone on Tuesday, with the highest single-day number of new cases and hospitalized people since the outbreak of the pandemic.