During a news conference today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the “hard closure” of all beaches in Orange County starting Friday, May 1.
This announcement in effect reverses a decision on Tuesday by the Newport Beach City Council to keep the city beaches open on weekends.
During his press conference, Gov. Newsom noted that images he saw from Orange County beaches last weekend were “very disturbing” and examples of “what not to see and not to do if we are going to make meaningful progress” against the coronavirus.
“Specific issues on some of those beaches have raised alarm bells,” he said. “People were congregating there who were not experiencing physical distancing. They may go back to their community outside of Orange County and may not even know they contracted the disease, and they put other people at risk and our hospital system at risk.”
Gov. Newsom noted that this was “a temporary pause on beaches, both state and local. If we can get some framework and guidelines, we can reopen very quickly, but I want to make sure we can get this right. Why undo all the great progress?”
