Bars, Restaurants, Worship Services, Malls, Gyms In 30 California Counties Ordered To Close As COVID Cases Surge
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the closure Monday of all indoor operations at restaurants, bars, gyms, churches, malls, and other locations in 30 counties statewide, including Los Angeles, Riverside, and Orange as officials say coronavirus cases are climbing higher statewide.
Under Newsom's announcement, counties will be required to close indoor operations of restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums, card rooms and all bars. Worship centers, gyms, personal hair services, and indoor malls will also be required to close indoor operations.
The latest closure announcement comes as new COVID-19 cases in California hit a daily average of 8,211 over the past week.
As of Monday, Newsom said 6,485 were hospitalized across the state due to the coronavirus. The seven-day rolling average of people testing positive for the virus was 7.7%, according to the governor.
Reiterating that the state's enactment of health-restrictions was being handled with a ``dimmer switch,'', Newsom said the severity of the orders can be adjusted upward or downward based on the latest virus statistics and "trendlines."
"This virus is not going away anytime soon,'' Newsom said. "I hope all of us recognize that if we were still connected to some notion that somehow when it gets warm it's going to go away or somehow it's going to take summer months or weekends off, this virus has done neither."
Talia, a fitness instructor at a local gym who teaches around 20 classes a week, says after almost three months on unemployment, she was excited to get back to work and is now fearful about what's next.
"Unemployment is always there as an option," she said. "If things change...I don't know how anybody is really going to sustain that."
No immediate reopening date was mentioned by the governor.
