California expected to close state beaches after concerns over recent crowds

A message to the governor’s office seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

While most state parks and many local beaches, trails and parks have been closed for weeks, Newsom’s order is sure to ignite pushback from communities who argue that they can safely provide some relief to residents who are starved of fresh air.

Pressure is building to ease state and local restrictions that have throttled the economy, closing most businesses and adding nearly four million people to the unemployment rolls.

Newsom’s beach order would come after a weekend in which 80,000 people flocked to Newport Beach in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, with additional thousands gathering at open beaches in Ventura County, north of L.A.

‘An overreaction’: Orange county official

An Orange County supervisor, Donald P. Wagner, issued a statement saying he believes Newsom has the power to close local beaches but “it is not wise to do so.”

“Orange County citizens have been co-operative with state and county restrictions thus far. I fear that this overreaction from the state will undermine that co-operative attitude and our collective efforts to fight the disease,” he said.

Beaches in Los Angeles County remain closed.

Lifeguards said most people appeared to be heeding social distance safety rules such as limiting groups and not lingering on the sand. But the crowds irked Newsom, who has said California’s 40 million residents should try to stay home as much as possible.

“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off, this virus doesn’t go home because it’s a beautiful sunny day around our coasts,” he said Monday.

The same day, beaches across San Diego County reopened. A day later, Newport Beach officials rejected a plan to close the city beaches for three consecutive weekends.

California is approaching 50,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 2,000 deaths, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, although the number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested.

Orange and Ventura counties — which combined have a population more than million — have seen slightly more than 1,000 reported cases and 61 deaths overall. Los Angeles County has accounted for more than half of the coronavirus deaths reported in the state.

However, virus hospitalizations have been virtually flat for several weeks in California and the state has dodged the dreaded massive surge of patients experienced by New York and several other states.

Some orders conflict

On Wednesday, six San Francisco Bay Area counties that imposed the first broad stay-at-home orders in California because of the coronavirus loosened them slightly to allow for landscaping, construction and other outdoor businesses, such as flea markets and nurseries, so long as physical distancing is maintained.

And in what could be a critical addition for many parents, it specifies that summer camps are allowed, but only if kids stay in small groups and their parents are considered to hold essential jobs under the state order, such as health-care workers.

Some recreational bans also were eased, but not all in exactly the same way. For instance, tennis will be OK in Sacramento starting Friday, but not in San Francisco.

Compounding the confusion: Some elements of the revised orders won’t take effect because they conflict with the statewide stay-at-home order, which is still in place.

In Riverside County, authorities said its local order will end Thursday and be replaced by less-restrictive measures. Trails and parks will be open for hiking, biking and horseback riding as long as visitors wear masks.

Health officials, however, warn that more mingling also brings the potential for more infection and the government should tread gingerly when easing restrictions so as not to ignite another surge in coronavirus cases.

Newsom has praised Californians for helping “flatten the curve” of the outbreak through social distancing but he also is reluctant to follow the examples of Georgia, Florida and several other states that are moving more rapidly to restart their economies.

Newsom reiterated Wednesday it would be weeks before he makes the first significant modification to the state order, urging people to remain at home to prevent unintended outbreaks among the state’s most high-risk populations, including nursing homes.

“It won’t be on the basis of pressure, it won’t be on the basis of what we want, but what we need to do,” Newsom said. “And what we need to do from my humble perspective is listen to the public health experts.”

But each of the state’s 58 counties have their own public health experts, and many are starting to ask Newsom to open up the state. This week, seven rural Northern California counties with low numbers of COVID-19 cases have asked Newsom to let them reopen.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Clara County Health Director Dr. Sara Cody said local officials have come up with their own metrics to measure infection rates, hospitalizations and testing to ensure that infections don’t start rising again. If that happens, she said, stricter rules will be back.

“I wish I could give you a set timeline for when this was going to end. My family asks me, my friends ask me — we don’t have a date,” she said, noting that there still is no vaccine, so “we are going to need to have protections in place for a very, very long time.”