Citing rising rates of people testing positive for the coronavirus and jumps in hospitalizations, Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday ordered the closure of indoor operations at gyms, hair salons, houses of worship, personal-care services, malls and non-critical office settings.
The order affects all 30 counties on the state's pandemic monitoring list — including San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties.
Newsom also ordered the statewide closure of indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, aquariums, family entertainment centers and card rooms -- and the full closure of all bars. Those restrictions were already in place in counties on the state's monitoring list, but the new order extended them statewide.
His order did not mention schools, but two of the state's largest school districts, San Diego and Los Angeles, announced Monday they would start the school year with online-only classes.
Newsom reiterated that the state's enactment of health-restrictions was being handled with a "dimmer switch," meaning the severity of the orders can be adjusted upward or downward based on the latest virus statistics and "trendlines."
The state has been seeing record numbers of infections in recent days, along with increasing hospitalizations. As of Monday, Newsom said 6,485 were hospitalized across the state due to the coronavirus. The seven-day rolling average of people testing positive for the virus was 7.7%, Newsom said.
"This virus is not going away anytime soon," Newsom said. "I hope all of us recognize that if we were still connected to some notion that somehow when it gets warm it's going to go away or somehow it's going to take summer months or weekends off, this virus has done neither. You've seen parts of the country with very hot ... weather where you're seeing an increase in positivity rates, an increase in hospitalizations and ICUs. Here in the state of California as we're seeing triple-digit weather in many parts of our state, we're still seeing an increase in the positivity rate, the community transmission. We're seeing an increase in the spread of the virus."
