Republicans in California are criticizing Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom for ordering the cessation of numerous internal activities in the state, just weeks after many of them reopened, as cases of the new coronavirus surge in the country’s most populous state.
“Governor Newsom has again failed Californians,” Jessica Millan Patterson, chair of the California Republican Party, said in a statement. “While she continues to blame Californians for their leadership failure, their demands to close small businesses and the lack of guidance on opening schools will further harm California schoolchildren and the small businesses that fuel our economy.”
She added: “It has shown its true colors, and it just isn’t up to the task.”
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Newsom, a Democrat, announced during a press conference on Monday that all bars across the state should close their stores and that restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums and game rooms should suspend indoor activities.
The governor also announced that all non-critical gyms, houses of worship, shopping malls, personal care services, hair salons, salons and offices in counties on the state’s “watch list” had to close under the new order. The order affects more than 30 counties, which house about 80 percent of California’s population.
“We have made this point multiple times and that is, we are returning to a way of modifying our original order to stay home,” Newsom said during his press conference. “This is still a deadly disease.”
As of Monday, the state had reported more than 320,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 7,000 deaths, with 23 people dying from the virus since Sunday. Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the country, leads both the state and the country in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 with more than 133,000, according to the Johns University Center for Science and Systems Engineering (CSSE) Hopkins.
In March, California became the first state to impose a mandatory stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the virus. Public health officials praised the state’s swift action and marveled at how the country’s most populous state kept its cases and hospitalizations low, while states like New York and New Jersey struggled to contain the highly contagious disease.
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In late April, Newsom, under increasing pressure, began allowing business and activities to resume, citing the state’s increased hospital capacity to handle a further surge in cases. Cases began to rise in early June and have since exploded, increasing 48 percent in the past two weeks, while hospitalizations have increased 40 percent.
Newsom’s announcement comes just hours after the state’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, announced that they will not reopen in-person instruction when the 2020-21 academic year begins next month. Districts said they will plan in-person learning as health conditions allow.
In contrast, the conservatively inclined Orange County Board of Education voted in favor of Monday night in favor of the guidelines requiring the reopening of district schools in time for fall classes and said it would not require social distancing and wearing masks for their students.
The school board, which approved the recommendations in a 4-to-1 vote, has no power to demand the reopening of the county’s 27 school districts and the final decision will rest with the individual districts. The Orange County Department of Education, which oversees operations, opposes the reopening.
Edmund DeMarche and The Fox News Associated Press contributed to this report.
