Gov. Gavin Newsom today ordered the closure of all indoor operations at gyms, hair salons, houses of worship, personal-care services, malls and non-critical office settings amid rising rates of people testing positive for the coronavirus.
All 30 counties that are currently on the state's pandemic monitoring list are affected by the order.
Newsom also ordered the statewide closure of indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, aquariums, family entertainment centers and card rooms -- and the full closure of all bars. Those restrictions were already in place in counties on the state's monitoring list, but the new order extended them statewide.
The severity of the new health-restrictions are being handled with a "dimmer switch" mentality, meaning the orders can be loosened or tightened depending on the latest virus statistics.
As of Monday afternoon, at least 6,485 people have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 in California and the seven-day rolling average of people testing positive was 7.7%.
“This virus is not going away anytime soon,'' Newsom said. “I hope all of us recognize that if we were still connected to some notion that somehow when it gets warm it's going to go away or somehow it's going to take summer months or weekends off, this virus has done neither. You've seen parts of the country with very hot ... weather where you're seeing an increase in positivity rates, an increase in hospitalizations and ICUs. Here in the state of California as we're seeing triple-digit weather in many parts of our state, we're still seeing an increase in the positivity rate, the community transmission. We're seeing an increase in the spread of the virus.''