Los Angeles Times
By Phil Willon
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday criticized Californians who defied the statewide stay-at-home order and flocked to beaches this past weekend, saying that ignoring restrictions could prolong the spread of the coronavirus in the state.
Newsom’s comments come after thousands of beachgoers descended on the coast in Orange and Ventura counties despite his pleas last week to avoid the temptation of doing so during the warm weekend.
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“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off,” Newsom said during his daily COVID-19 briefing in Sacramento. “The only thing that will set us back is people stopping to practice physical distancing and appropriate social distancing. That’s the only thing that’s going to slow down our ability to reopen this economy.”
Newsom vowed to increase statewide enforcement of the stay-at-home order if necessary and, in a thinly veiled criticism of the cities and counties that saw crowded beaches, said “we’ll have a little work to do to improve upon Saturday.”
“You didn’t see those images at L.A. beaches and San Diego beaches and [in] Northern California ... because we had strong guidelines that were not only adopted but were abided by, and we had local partners that supported those efforts,” Newsom said.
Amid mounting pressure from some local officials to reopen the state, Newsom said he expected to announce modifications to the stay-at-home order within a matter of weeks.
Newsom on Monday said he will begin “digital roundtables” with workers, small-businesses owners and other employers in some of the most affected industries about the impacts of COVID-19 and plans to emerge from the crisis.
“The hope and expectation is that we’ll be in a position in a number of weeks to make meaningful modifications but again the data will guide that, the indicators will guide that,” Newsom said.
Newsom’s comments come after several governors across the country said they plan to ease stay-at-home orders in the days and weeks ahead.
Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a similar phased plan to reopen his state on May 15, initially upstate, which has been less affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than the greater New York City area. Govs. Jared Polis of Colorado, a Democrat, and Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, have issued similar pronouncements, but said the dates for reopening will depend on daily assessments of the spread of the virus in their states.
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday announced that retail businesses and some services will begin to reopen on May 12, with requirements for workers to wear face masks and other safeguards.
“We’ve gotten this far — but we have a ways to go. These are the first steps. I know there are other things we all want to do — get a haircut, go to restaurants — but we have to see how we are doing with #COVID19 first,” DeWine tweeted.
On Monday, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers, mayors and other elected officials from six counties in California’s northern interior urged the governor to allow the region to ease the restrictions and start the process of reopening their economy. They said the spread of the coronavirus in that area has subsided, with only one person with the virus hospitalized in an intensive care unit as of Monday.
“We believe that the local public health data, in addition to our area’s ability to continue monitoring cases, should allow our counties to soon begin a science-based, thoughtful reopening of our economy, consistent with national guidelines, which would allow our residents to get back to work,” the letter to Newsom stated.
The county officials were just the latest in local government to request Newsom’s permission to phase out the stay-at-home order, with many expressing fear that the restrictions would decimate businesses and flatten local economies.
Last week, San Luis Obispo County officials said they have bent the coronavirus curve and were beginning to craft a “phase two” that would allow some businesses to reopen. Days earlier, Ventura County officials modified a stay-at-home order to permit some businesses to reopen and some gatherings to take place.
State lawmakers are also hearing from constituents who want to start thinking differently about the crisis and how some sort of economic reboot will begin.
During a hearing on Monday about the economy, Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) urged the Newsom administration to abandon the terminology of “essential” versus “non-essential” businesses.
“If you are a small business owner, you probably consider your business essential,” Wood said. “It’s essential to your family, it’s essential to the people you employ and it’s essential to your community, in many ways.”
Wood said it’s time for state officials to begin looking more closely at which businesses could reopen, suggesting there would be little risk in allowing small accounting firms or attorney’s offices to resume work.
“I have to feel like there’s a lot of business owners that could be operating safely, given the opportunity to do so,” he said.
While promising to review all requests by local governments to modify the order, Newsom has been hesitant to pin any state action to a specific date, saying reports on the spread of the virus, along with hospitalizations and death, would “drive our decision-making.”
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