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LOS ANGELES: Most Californians faced heavy new restrictions on Monday (Dec. 7) aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19, while the New York Governor threatened to ban meals at indoor restaurants in the city of New York, as the United States feared infections would continue to rise.
Restaurants in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and the state’s San Joaquin Agricultural Valley are closed for everything but takeout and home delivery. Playgrounds closed, stores reduced their capacity, and beauty salons and barber shops closed.
The measures affected about three-quarters of the nearly 40 million people in the most populous state in the United States.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s order allowed some schools to continue teaching. But the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest closed campuses in the state that had been partially open to offer in-person services and tutoring, affects many students with special needs.
READ: California Becomes Largest US State To Launch COVID-19 Contact Tracking App
In San Francisco, Ellen Scanlon, 43, perused a closure notice at a playground she frequents with her two-year-old son. “I understand it and we are going to fulfill it … but it has been difficult,” he said.
Newsom’s directive applied to places where less than 15 percent of intensive care hospital beds remain available, which so far affects Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Similar orders were imposed by localities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease expert, said Monday that the state’s action will “rescue them from the possibility of their hospitals being invaded.”
California set a record for new cases with 30,000 on Saturday and recorded nearly 25,000 more on Sunday. Hospitalizations also reached records. In the San Joaquin Valley, only 6.3 percent of beds in intensive care units were available, the state said Monday.
Nationwide, COVID-19 infections are at their peak, with an average of 193,863 new cases reported each day for the past week, according to a Reuters tally of official data.
There have been 14.7 million confirmed infections and more than 282,000 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States since the pandemic began, the highest number in the world.
People wear masks as they walk on the sidewalk during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Del Mar, California, on July 30, 2020 (Photo: REUTERS / Mike Blake).
The California order, which went into effect in the two regions on Sunday and will last at least three weeks, bans private gatherings of any size in the affected areas and closes all retailers and critical infrastructure. It will expand to other parts of the state if the capacity of the intensive care unit decreases.
Sheriffs in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have said they would not enforce the rules, prompting Newsom to threaten to withhold coronavirus relief funds.
NEW YORK RESTRICTION LOOM
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that if hospitalization rates continue to climb this week, he would suspend indoor meals at New York City restaurants. They only resumed indoor service in September at 25 percent capacity.
Cuomo said a widespread closure of nonessential businesses across the state like the tax in the spring was not justified for now.
To avoid a critical bed shortage, New York state health officials will order hospitals to increase capacity by 25 percent and ask retired doctors and nurses to return to work, Cuomo said. Fauci, chosen by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as his top coronavirus adviser before taking office on Jan. 20, said the pandemic could get worse after the year-end holidays.
After millions of people ignored public health advice and traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday in November, Fauci said he feared Americans would meet again at Christmas and New Years.
Deaths typically increase about three weeks after spikes in infections and hospitalizations.
“Without substantial mitigation, mid-January can be a really dark time for us,” said Fauci, who introduced himself with Cuomo during the governor’s video conference.
Biden has said he will make fighting the pandemic his top priority by replacing Republican President Donald Trump.
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