SACRAMENTO — California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking dramatic new action to stop the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
“We’re one body,” Newsom said Thursday. “There’s a mutuality. There’s a recognition of our interdependence that requires of this moment that we direct a statewide order for people to stay at home.”
Newsom explained more than half of the people in California, over 25 million people, could be infected with the respiratory illness. That could result in thousands of hospitalizations, much more than the state’s hospital capacity.
Folks will still be allowed to do essential tasks like going to the store, picking up medicine and going for walks. Newsom suggested law enforcement wouldn’t be enforcing the order saying social pressure would regulate behavior.
“We will have social pressure that will encourage people to do the right thing saying ‘hey, maybe you should reconsider going out on to the beach or being more than 22 strong at the park’,” he said.
The statewide order follows similar orders in major California cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.
