Gavin Newsom rebukes California beach-goers: ‘This virus doesn’t take the weekend off’
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday rebuked Californians who flocked to Southern California beaches over the weekend, warning that crowded beaches could prolong the stay-at-home orders he and local governments handed down last month to slow the coronvirus outbreak.
“Those images are an example of what not to see,” Newsom said, referring to photographs that circulated widely over the weekend.
People crowded onto beaches in Orange and Ventura counties over the weekend, he said, while other beaches around the state, including in Los Angeles County, remained closed.
Last month, similar photos of Californians packing state parks and beaches prompted Newsom to close parking lots at many of those locations, making them more difficult to access.
This time, Newsom said that he is meeting with state and local law enforcement to discuss “more aggressive enforcement” of the stay-at-home order, though he said his preference was to educate people, not to issue them citations.
“I don’t want to see that happen, you don’t want to see that happen, none of us do. But if there are people thumbing their nose at and abusing it, putting their lives at risk because they’re impacting the lives of others, and ultimately setting back the cause of reopening the economy as quickly as we’d like to, I think we may have to do a little bit more,” he said.
His warning comes as some local governments and activists press him to reopen parts of the state. The latest request came from six rural Northern Calfiornia counties where local officials say the coronavirus is under control.
Newsom said at Monday’s press conference that California is fast approaching a modification of his stay-at-home order. As of Monday, more than 43,000 Californians had tested positive for the virus and 1,755 have died because of it.
“The reality is, we are just a few weeks away, not months away, from making measurable and meaningful changes to our stay-at-home order,” Newsom said. “However, that’s driven by data, that’s driven by behavior.”
The governor warned that the coronavirus is just as prevalent and transmissible as it has ever been.
“This virus doesn’t take the weekend off. This virus doesn’t go home because it’s a beautiful sunny day around our coast,” Newsom said.
This story was originally published April 27, 2020 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Gavin Newsom rebukes California beach-goers: ‘This virus doesn’t take the weekend off’."