According to a confirmed news report, California Governor Gavin Newsom will announce today(April 30) that he will order the closure of all beaches and parks in the state amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus after crowds jammed beaches last weekend.
The governor’s office sent the memo to California’s police chiefs in anticipation of today’s announcement.
“After the well-publicized media coverage of overcrowded beaches this past weekend, in violation of Governor Newsom’s Shelter in Place Order, the Governor will be announcing tomorrow that ALL beaches and all state parks in California will be closed, effective Friday, May 1st,” the memo read.
While Newsom, a Democrat, has said that curbside retail, manufacturing and other “lower-risk workplaces” should reopen in California within weeks as testing and contact-tracing improve, he has also said the state will ramp up social distancing guidelines and its enforcement after the scenes of crowded beaches last weekend.
The crowds are also euphemisms of the tension that officials throughout the country are dealing with as citizens become antsy under stay-at-home orders and some states begin to loosen them.
Florida, Texas, Georgia and several other states have lifted their stay-at-home orders, however, the infection rates in the aforementioned states have all risen since their reopening.
The U.S. has now reported over 60,000 deaths from the deadly virus, reflecting the largest number of infections of COVID-19 in the world.
