California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered that businesses providing indoor services once again shut their doors as the state continues to see a surge in the number of coronavirus cases.
On Monday, Newsom ordered the closure of restaurants, bars and other businesses offering indoor activities statewide during a press briefing, according to the state’s official website.
Wineries, tasting rooms, zoos, museums, family entertainment centers and gambling spaces must close their doors for business. Also affected are the gyms, malls, personal care services, salons and places of worship.
The order will be implemented in more than 30 counties. Newsom told Fox News he was enforcing this order in many counties because COVID-19 still remains to be a “deadly disease.”
In March, California, the most populous state in the U.S., was the first state to implement a mandatory stay-at-home order in an effort to hamper the spread of the novel coronavirus. In doing so, the state kept its number of cases and hospitalizations considerably low despite its huge population. By the end of April, for example, the state had 2,417 confirmed positive cases, New York State had 3,942 on April 30.
However, as businesses began to resume in late April, the state slowly saw an increase in its cases. In early June, more transmissions became evident when a sudden increase in positive cases was reported. At present, the state continues to record more cases each week. According to the state website, the rate of positive tests over the last two weeks is now 7.4 percent, (up 1.8 percent) and an additional 163 people have been hospitalized because of the virus since July 11.
Newsom’s order came the same day as a warning from the World Health Organization: The coronavirus pandemic could get worse globally if people did not strictly follow the safety guidelines and practice social distancing.
“There will be no return to the ‘old normal’ for the foreseeable future, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Let me blunt: Too many countries are headed in the wrong direction. The virus remains public enemy number one, but the actions of many governments and people do not reflect this,” said Ghebreyesus, who made his comments during a virtual news briefing on CBS News.
Based on the latest data from the WHO, there are 12,768,307 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 566,654 deaths. The U.S. remains the pandemic’s epicenter with 3,225,950 positive cases.
