BERKELEY — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday 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.
The order takes effect immediately and remains effective "until further notice.
" Californians are not allowed to leave home except for essential purposes. They are allowed to purchase groceries, prescriptions and health care, as well as commute to jobs deemed essential.The governor's order comes with misdemeanor penalties for anyone who violates the restrictions, though he said he believes social pressure will keep people home rather than law enforcement.
“There’s a social contract here,” Newsom said. “People, I think, recognize the need to do more and meet his moment.”
Newsom said the order has to remain in effect indefinitely. He has repeatedly said the next eight weeks are crucial to bend the curve and stop the rapid contagion. He also said he does not expect the order to last "many, many months."
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’s office clarified that figure did not account for the sweeping mitigation efforts California has imposed, making it a kind of worst-case scenario. But it nevertheless communicated the dire stakes.
Twenty-one of California's 58 counties had already imposed enforceable shelter-in-place orders for all residents before Newsom's announcement Thursday night, ranging from Silicon Valley's Santa Clara County with 2 million people to the 62,000-person San Benito County near the Central Coast.
Four of those counties approved those orders Thursday, with seven acting Wednesday, three acting Tuesday and seven acting Monday, starting with the populous Bay Area counties. And 25 of the state's counties before tonight had also banned gatherings of all sizes as local officials urged citizens to practice social distancing.
Victoria Colliver and Colby Bermel contributed to this report.