Last week, residents of Southern California were told by public health officials, and law enforcement, that it was fine to head back to local beaches or parks... As long as they continued to follow health orders and practice safe social distancing. The beachgoers were just asked not to congregate, and were not allowed to bring tarps or coolers.
“Many of you were out and about this weekend, and I’m really glad to hear that so many of you practiced safe social distancing,” Ventura County Supervisor Kelly Long said during a briefing Monday. “I appreciate everyone that followed our soft closures for our beaches and our parks and our harbor being open so that we can exercise, but not be socially gathering.”
But while officials in Ventura County thanked residents, Gov. Gavin Newsom called out those who he said crowded the SoCal beaches.
“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off," Newsom said. "This virus doesn’t go home because it’s a beautiful, sunny day around our coasts.”
“We knew with the weather, and people feeling cooped up it would be a great temptation to go out there, but what we’re seeing was a great response by our community in terms of following the orders and social distancing,” Ventura County CEO Mike Powers said. “Our COVID-19 incident numbers are some of the very best in the state and that’s because of he work that you’re doing.”
According to Ventura County's health officer Robert Levin, as of Monday the county death toll remained at 17, with 503 confirmed cases of the coronavirus.
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