Newsom Orders Another California Lockdown: Bars, Restaurants, Churches, Gyms

After temporarily rolling back the lockdowns put in place this past March, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has instituted another wave of lockdowns, closing all bars, restaurants, and places of worship.

“During a press briefing that all bars across the state must close up shop and that restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums and card rooms must suspend indoor activities,” reported Fox News on Monday. “The governor also announced that all gyms, places of worship, malls, personal care services, barbershops, salons, and non-critical offices in counties on the state’s ‘monitoring list’ had to shut down under the new order.”

Thirty counties will be placed under this new lockdown order – 80% of the state’s population. Speaking to reporters, Newsom said that the order stems from an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

“We’re continuing to see hospitalizations rise and we continue to see an increase in the rate of positivity in the state,” he said, as reported by Deadline. “We’ve made this point on multiple occasions and that is, we’re moving back into a modification mode of our original stay-at-home order.  This is a new statewide action, effective today. This continues to be a deadly disease.”

On Monday, California reported more than 320,000 cases of COVID-19 and 7,000 deaths in a state of 39.5 million people. On Sunday, 23 people died from the virus. According to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, Los Angeles leads the state with more than 133,000 cases. Fox News provided a timeline of California’s on-again/off-again lockdown structure since March:

In March, California became the first state to impose a mandatory stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the virus. Public health officials praised the state’s quick action, marveling at how the nation’s most populous state kept its cases and hospitalizations low while states like New York and New Jersey struggled to contain the highly contagious disease.

By late April, Newsom — under increasing pressure – began allowing businesses and activities to resume, citing the state’s increased hospital capacity to handle a new surge of cases. Cases began rising in early June and have exploded since, increasing 48 percent in the past two weeks, while hospitalizations have increased 40 percent.

On Monday, schools in Los Angeles and San Diego announced that they will not be opening for in-person instruction for the remainder of the year.

“Those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available. California has neither. The skyrocketing infection rates of the past few weeks make it clear the pandemic is not under control,” the two districts said in a joint statement.

Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to pull federal funding from schools that do not reopen in the fall.

“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!” he tweeted.