Yesterday Gov. Gavin Newson ordered a second statewide shutdown of indoor businesses in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Imperial and San Diego counties. Restaurants, bars, gyms, salons, malls, movie theaters, places of worship and other non-essential businesses in those areas must close indoor operations in order to help stem the spread of Covid-19.
The governor said,
“As a consequence of an increase in positivity rate, increase in hospitalizations and ICUs, based upon the predicate, this foundation that we laid of utilizing a dimmer switch, today we are announcing additional statewide actions as relates to our stay-at-home order,” .
Republican lawmakers are heavily criticizing the governor for his decision saying that the recent re-opening of thse businesses are not the cause of the increase in Covid-19 cases.
Representative Doug LaMalfa, State Senators Jim Nielsen and Brian Dahle, Assemblyman James Gallagher and Assemblywoman Megan Dahle issued a statement, which reads:
“Let’s be clear: It is imperative that we all do our part by practicing social distancing and acting responsibly in order to suppress this virus and protect our community. But these efforts are undermined when the Governor is single handedly and arbitrarily crushing people’s livelihoods – their ability to put food on the table, to pay rent and to pay their bills.
There is no justification for this approach. There is no evidence that any of these activities are causing an increase in Covid-19 cases.
Restaurants and churches are not the source of our increase in cases. Small businesses are hanging by a thread and this action puts all the burden of this crisis back upon them. Main Street is struggling for its very life, while Lowe’s and Home Depot are packed with people and having record years. No one can make any sense of these confusing orders.
Businesses have NOT been the direct cause, they’ve done everything they’ve been asked to do successfully. These shutdown orders punish them, their customers and it completely misses the target, especially in our rural towns.
It’s painful to watch the Governor constantly change his mind if counties can govern themselves or not during this pandemic. It’s even more painful being forced to sit on the sidelines as the California Legislature has handed over all authority to one man."
Keep in mind that 7.5 million Californians are jobless. That EDD has not been able to handle the current unemployment claims. People who filed in March still have not received payments. How in the world will EDD be able to handle the enormous uptake in cases based on today’s one-size-fits-all decision?
We have said it before: human lives are at stake. People are stressed and filled with anxiety about their livelihoods. The mental health and other side effects of today’s decision will be felt for years into the future.”
Here's the question we want an answer to....are Gov. Newsom's wineries still open for business?