Gov. Gavin Newsom today ordered California’s nearly 40 million residents to stay home, making it the first state to impose that strict mandate on all residents to counteract a looming surge of new infections.
“There’s a social contract here,” Newsom said. “People, I think, recognize the need to do more and meet his moment.”
In recent days Newsom, mayors and health officials across the state have clamped down on social gatherings as reported coronavirus cases and deaths have steadily increased.
Shortly before Newsom spoke, Los Angeles joined the entire San Francisco Bay Area and major metropolitan areas like Sacramento — the seat of California’s government and Newsom’s current home — in confining residents to their homes for all but essential tasks.
Newsom said those directives already cover some 21.3 million Californians, or more than half of the state’s residents; many businesses and most schools have closed.
But his latest order is another order of magnitude, nearly doubling the population under lockdown.
Those measures are intended both to shield vulnerable residents and to maintain California’s health care systems’ capacity to handle an influx of new patients.
Earlier in the day, Newsom laid out a grim scenario if California does not respond decisively: 56 percent of the state’s residents, or some 22 million people, could contract the virus in the next eight weeks.
Newsom said that like New York City, Los Angeles is densely populated, making it particularly vulnerable to the spread of disease.
As of tonight, California reported having more than 950 confirmed cases of the virus and 18 deaths.
However, public health officials across the country continue to report a lack of testing kits, making the true number of cases difficult to quantify.