California Gov. Gavin Newsom orders the closure of businesses, such as restaurants, movie theaters, museums, and bars as coronavirus cases continue to rise.
In California, the closure of businesses will affect bars and the indoor operations at wineries and tasting rooms, cardrooms, family entertainment centers, restaurants, zoos, bars, and museums.
The announcement comes after Newsom asked businesses to close in counties on the state’s “monitoring list.” The new order takes effective immediately, he said.
Moreover, the indoor operations for fitness centers, personal care services, hair salons and barbershops, worship services, malls, and offices for all counties that have been on the monitoring list for three or more consecutive days are ordered to stop. These make up 80% of the state’s population.
Newsom pointed out that there are now 30 counties on the list, such as San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange counties.
He said the state reported 8,358 new cases on Sunday. The positivity rate, or the percentage of tests returning positive, has increased up to 7.4%.
“The data suggests not everyone is acting with common sense,” Newsom said at a press conference.
He also stressed the increase in the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals, increasing by 28% over a two-week period. Hospitals now have 6,485 Covid-19 patients.
Newsom told the public to not interact with people outside their households and urged them to meet outside if they do meet.
School reopening in California
Meanwhile, two of California’s largest school districts, Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified, released a joint statement about school reopening in the fall.
According to the school districts, much of the research surrounding the coronavirus and children remains uncertain and most of the reopening guidelines are “vague and contradictory.”
“One fact is clear: those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available. California has neither,” according to the statement.
President Donald Trump previously told governors to push through with school reopenings in the fall amid an increasing number of coronavirus cases in many states.
He reiterated the plan of his administration to pressure state governors and educators to reopen schools in the fall.
“We’re very much going to put pressure on the governors and the schools to reopen,” Trump said at a White House event.
“Open your schools in the fall,” the president told attendees, who were seated close together despite the fact that very few were wearing masks.
There are over 50 million students who attend school in the United States, and the closure of schools forced millions of parents to teach their own children and do their jobs at the same time.
In a Tweet, he threatened to slash their funding if schools do not reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Vice President Mike Pence affirmed that the White House is looking at using the Phase 4 coronavirus relief bill as tool to impose leverage over schools. “As we work with Congress on the next round of state support, we’re going to be looking for ways to give states a strong incentive and encouragement to get kids back in school,” said Pence.
