Newsom issues statewide “stay at home” order
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP and KION)
In an major announcement Thursday night, California governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide order for people to stay at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
It expands to nearly 40 million people restrictions he said already applied to about half the state. He said late Thursday that the statewide restriction on any non-essential movement outside the home is needed to control the spread of the coronavirus that threatens to overwhelm the state's medical system.
The executive order lists 16 critical infrastructure sectors who may "continue their work because of the importance of these sectors to Californian's health and well-being."
These sectors are: chemical, commercial facilities, communications, critical manufacturing, dams, defense industrial base, emergency services, energy, financial services, food and agriculture, government facilities, healthcare and public health, information technology, nuclear reactors, materials and waste, transportation systems, and water and wastewater systems.
In a Tweet, Newsom writes: "Those that work in critical sectors should go to work. Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and more will stay open. We need to meet this moment and flatten the curve together."
Similar to local "shelter-in-place" orders already in effect on the Central Coast, the order does not mean that people are unable to leave their homes. Newsom writes that "the supply chain must continue," adding "when people need to leave their homes or places of residence, whether to obtain or perform the functions above, or to otherwise facilitate authorized necessary activities, they should at all times practice social distancing."
He earlier in the day issued the dire prediction that 56% of California's population could contract the virus over the next eight weeks.
With these rules in mind, Central Coast residents are reacting to the order, and many were unsurprised. They said that since Monterey County was already on a shelter-in-place order, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the state joined.
"“I’m happy he did it," Salinas resident Jon Cardona said. "There’s other states out there, like Florida, that—people are still running around on beaches that should have been closed, you know, a week ago.”
Some said they came out here as soon as they saw the news about the order. They wanted to buy food before, what they called, "another wave of panic."
This is a developing story. More details to come.
