California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new round of lockdown measures Wednesday, ordering 19 counties to close all indoor operations for several business sectors, including restaurants, as the state grapples with a resurgence of coronavirus “cases.”
In addition to bars being forced to shut down temporarily, restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, family entertainment venues, zoos, museums and cardrooms must halt operations in selected communities, Newsom said Wednesday.
Businesses can continue to operate if they can move operations outdoors.
“This doesn’t mean restaurants are shut down,” Newsom, a Democrat, said at a briefing. “It means that we’re trying to take the activities, as many activities as we can — these mixed activities, these concentrated activities — and move them outdoors, which is a way of mitigating the spread of this virus.”
The list of affected counties ran up and down the state: Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Merced, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Solano, Stanislaus, Tulare and Ventura counties.
Newsom’s order came as the state reported its highest daily COVID-19 count Monday with 8,000 infections and multiple days with new highs. Hospitalizations related to the virus have soared over the past two weeks to 43 percent, he said Wednesday.
Statewide, over 232,600 cases have been “reported,” in addition to over 6,000 deaths, according to the state Department of Public Health.
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