Governor calls on youth to take shelter-in-place seriously
Daisy Nguyen | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 8 months AGO
Grant Mock, a PFC with the California National Guard places cereal in a box of food supplies at the Sacramento Food Bank in Sacramento, Calif., Saturday, March 21, 2020. Food banks have been hit hard by a shortage of volunteers due to the mandatory stay-at-home order caused by the coronavirus. Mock and other members of the 115th Regional Support Group are supplementing food bank staff to ensure the food bank continues provide food to those in need. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Specialist Yadira Izaguirre of the California National Guard picks up case of soup that will be packed with other food stuff supplies at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services in Sacramento, Calif., Saturday, March 21, 2020. Food banks have been hit hard by a shortage of volunteers due to the mandatory stay-at-home order caused by the coronavirus. Izaguirre and other members of the 115th Regional Support Group are supplementing food bank staff to ensure the food bank continues provide food to those in need. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Sgt. Caleb Lim, of the California National Guard ties up a bag of apples at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services in Sacramento, Calif., Saturday, March 21, 2020. Food banks have been hit hard by a shortage of volunteers due to the mandatory stay-at-home order caused by the coronavirus. Lim and other members of the 115th Regional Support Group are supplementing food bank staff to ensure the food bank continues provide food to those in need.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Chalked message on a bike trail in Roseville, Calif. on Saturday March 21, 2020. A little more than 24 hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an unprecedented stay-at-home order to nearly 40 million residents to help curb the coronavirus spread, most Californians were faced with how to spend two days of free time with strict limits on their freedom. (AP Photo/Don Thompson)
Beachgoers are seen at Venice Beach, Saturday, March 21, 2020, in Los Angeles. Traffic would normally be bumper-to-bumper during this time of day on a Friday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state's 40 million residents to stay at home indefinitely. His order restricts non-essential movements to control the spread of the coronavirus that threatens to overwhelm the state's medical system. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Beachgoers are seen at Venice Beach, Saturday, March 21, 2020, in Los Angeles. Traffic would normally be bumper-to-bumper during this time of day on a Friday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state's 40 million residents to stay at home indefinitely. His order restricts non-essential movements to control the spread of the coronavirus that threatens to overwhelm the state's medical system. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Beachgoers are seen at Venice Beach, Saturday, March 21, 2020, in Los Angeles. Traffic would normally be bumper-to-bumper during this time of day on a Friday. California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the state's 40 million residents to stay at home indefinitely. His order restricts non-essential movements to control the spread of the coronavirus that threatens to overwhelm the state's medical system. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
A pedestrian walks along a deserted upscale outdoor mall, The Paseo in Pasadena, Calif., Saturday, March 21, 2020. A little more than 24 hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an unprecedented stay-at-home order to nearly 40 million residents to help curb the coronavirus spread, most Californians were faced with how to spend two days of free time with strict limits on their freedom. (AP Photo/John Antczak)
A plaza at The Paseo, an upscale outdoor shopping mall in Pasadena, Calif., is deserted Saturday, March 21, 2020, after state and local authorities told Californians to stay at home and maintain social distancing to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/John Antczak)
People keep their distance from each other while waiting in line to enter a Trader Joe's grocery store in San Francisco, Saturday, March 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A man stands in the middle of a cable car tracks on a near empty California Street in San Francisco, Saturday, March 21, 2020. Some 40 million Californians are coping with their first weekend under a statewide order requiring them to stay at home to help curb the spread of the coronavirus(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Steve King, a Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest forklift driver, prepares to deliver pallets during a supply load aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) at Naval Base San Diego, adjacent to San Diego, Calif., Saturday, March 21, 2020. Mercy is preparing to deploy in support of the nation's COVID-19 response efforts and will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals. (Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Mike Jones/U.S. Navy via AP)
A man walks alone while crossing Green Street in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, Saturday, March 21, 2020. Some 40 million Californians are coping with their first weekend under a statewide order requiring them to stay at home to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A man wears a mask while walking in front of closed businesses on Grant Avenue in Chinatown in San Francisco, Saturday, March 21, 2020. Some 40 million Californians are coping with their first weekend under a statewide order requiring them to stay at home to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Master-at-Arms 3rd Class Ashlee McCasland, Master-at-Arms 2nd Class Jonathan Shaw and Senior Chief Master-at-Arms Lou Canton prepare pallets of supplies to be loaded aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) at Naval Base San Diego, adjacent to San Diego, Calif., Saturday, March 21, 2020. Mercy is preparing to deploy in support of the nation's COVID-19 response efforts and will serve as a referral hospital for non-COVID-19 patients currently admitted to shore-based hospitals. (Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Mike Jones/U.S. Navy via AP)
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Most Californians stayed at home on a Saturday that was unlike any its 40 million residents had ever seen before.
Less than 48 hours after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an unprecedented stay-at-home order to help curb the coronavirus spread, shopping centers and streets were empty. Churches were closed. Playgrounds deserted.
However, stores and farmer markets were bustling, and many people took advantage of the beautiful spring weather and rushed to the outdoors. At beaches and parks, not everyone heeded calls to practice social distancing, prompting Newsom to call them out.
“Those young people are still out there on the beaches thinking it's time to party. It's time to grow up, time to wake up,” he said at an evening news conference. “Time to recognize that it's not just about the old folks, it's about your impact on their lives. Don't be selfish.”
The governor's effort to curb the pandemic in the nation's most populous state was by far the most sweeping and was followed Friday by similar announcements in New York and Illinois.
California is one of the hardest-hit states, with 1,382 confirmed cases confirmed cases and 25 deaths as of Saturday.
Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer urged people to stay home and only go out for essential needs. Those who have been tested and come back negative shouldn’t have a false sense of security.
“You can be negative today and positive tomorrow,” she said. “Stay home as much as possible. You are safer at home."
Newsom has said infection rates of the COVID-19 virus are doubling every four days in some areas and projected that 56% of the state's population — about 22 million people — could contract the virus in the next two months if aggressive prevention isn't taken. On Saturday night, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department announced two deaths from coronavirus and 59 new cases.
On Saturday, he ordered spending $42 million in emergency funding to allow the state to lease two hospitals — Seton Medical Center in Daly City and St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles — for three months to provide care for patients with COVID-19.
The emergency fund will also be used to buy or refurbish ventilators, provide more patient transportation service and expand testing capacity at a state laboratory.
California's 416 hospitals have a combined 78,000 beds for patients, Newsom said, and the state was working to set up 10,000 additional beds by converting hotels and convention centers into quasi hospitals to meet the potential demand. The Santa Clara Convention Center, for example, will accommodate 250 patients.
Residents have been told to stay 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from others, not gather in groups and wash their hands frequently. They can go out to get food, fill prescriptions, seek medical care, care for vulnerable relatives or neighbors and get exercise, such as walking.
In general, people seemed to be heeding state and local orders to stay home as much as possible. Normally congested freeways in California were truly free — of traffic — and city streets remained mostly empty in areas usually bustling with cars, bikes, scooters and commuters emerging from rail stations and stopping at coffee shops and bakeries. Yosemite National Park closed to visitors Friday, the latest of California's top tourist destinations to do so.
Most retail businesses and virtually all schools were closed and those that could were having employees work from home. Gas stations, supermarkets and convenience stores were open along with auto repair shops and those providing essential services, such as plumbers and electricians, were still on the job. But restaurants were only delivering or providing take-out.
At the same time, people were sweeping grocery store shelves bare despite government pleas that hoarding was unnecessary because there were no shortages. Toilet paper was universally in short supply.
Up to 500 members of the California National Guard were activated Saturday to help with humanitarian aid. Most of them are providing help in distributing food at food banks, whose volunteer base has declined during the crisis while the need for them has soared because many people are losing work.
A farmer's market near Oakland's Lake Merritt was bustling on a Saturday morning with shoppers waiting in line at a produce stand to buy beets, strawberries and kale. Most stood several feet apart, but the spacing didn't appear to be enough for one woman who walked by and yelled “6 feet!” to remind everyone the rule for keeping a safe distance.
Some vendors required shoppers to order produce instead of picking them out themselves. One farmer posted a sign that said: “Don't touch what you won't buy please.”
“If you're not wearing rubber gloves and a mask, you shouldn't be here,” said Jeff Hyde, who had both on while selling smoked fish.
At the farmers market in Pasadena, people appeared to be trying to stay 6 feet apart while waiting in line. The stalls, however, were directly next to each other. and shoppers picked out produce close together.
The Huntington Beach pier is typically full on a sunny weekend morning, but there was plenty of room Saturday for walkers, joggers and roller skaters to stay far apart. Down below, dozens of surfers bobbed in the water where sets of waist-high waves rolled in.
The bright skies, or perhaps the threat of rain on Sunday, drew many people to Venice Beach. Most took care to stay well away from each other on the sand. But spacing became an issue in popular areas like the pier and the boardwalk.
North of San Francisco, the Marin County Sheriff's office shut down access to the Mount Tamalpais Watershed “due to the astronomical amount of people NOT practicing social distancing and home sheltering.” Authorities there said there was back-to-back traffic to coastal attractions and parking lots to beaches were full.
Newsom said he expected social pressure — not policing — to help enforce his stay-at-home order. He said he doesn't want to shut down parks or beaches, and that National Guard troops will only be deployed to help law enforcement “make sure all our logistics are operational.”
Authorities were looking into releasing non-violent inmates from jails to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in close confinement. The state prison system reported its first three cases among employees at different institutions, but no inmate has yet contracted it.
For most people, COVID-19 causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. It can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, for some people, especially older adults and those with existing health problems. The vast majority of people recover.
California’s homeless population was a serious concern because of their lack of shelter and the fact that many had underlying medical problems that made them more vulnerable to the virus. Los Angeles was waging a crash program to set up thousands of emergency beds in its recreation centers.
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Associated Press writers Adam Beam, Don Thompson and Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, Stefanie Dazio, Michael R. Blood and Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles, Olga R. Rodriguez and Juliet Williams in San Francisco, and Amy Taxin in Orange County contributed to this story.
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The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.