Effective Thursday night, March 19, 2020, California Governor Newsom issued a “stay at home” order for all 40 million Californians in a press conference that was live streamed on Twitter.
Citizens are ordered to only leave their homes for essential trips and is in place until further notice.
It is unclear what enforcement measures will be taken for those that disobey the order.
Businesses such as bars, gyms, full-service restaurants and more will be closed according to the order.
Essential businesses like banks, gas stations, grocery stories, pharmacies, some take out restaurants and others are allowed to remain open.
Public events and gatherings are banned.
However, Newsom says California needs to “bend the curve” and that coronavirus cases are increasing rapidly.
“There’s a social contract here, people I think recognize the need to do more. They will adjust and adapt as they have.” he continued.
Newsom explained his numbers saying, “We believe the virus will impact about 56% of California’s population…You do the math, that’s a particularly large number…We believe with a 20% hospitalization rate, that’s about 19,543 people that would need to be hospitalized – above the existing capacity of our system.”
Newsom caveated the announcement with, “Home isolation is not my preferred choice…but it is a necessary one. This is not a permanent state, it is a moment in time.”
This order comes as the U.S. Senate unveiled a trillion dollar bailout plan and U.S. deaths from the coronavirus hit 200. The bailout is the third bailout after the first two packages totaled over $110 billion.
A patchwork of closings, lockdowns and social distance orders are springing up all over the country which is creating a more or less state of voluntary semi-lockdown around the country.
Today, the U.S. State Department told citizens that international travel plans “may be severely disrupted, and you may be forced to remain outside of the United States for an indefinite timeframe.”
To date, John Hopkins University is reporting there are a little over 14,000 U.S. reported cases of the virus and 205 deaths.
Globally, roughly 242,000 has reportedly been infected, with more than 9,800 having died.
