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Newsom Announces Temporary Closure of OC Beaches

[additional-authors]
April 30, 2020
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 27: California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks in front of the hospital ship USNS Mercy that arrived into the Port of Los Angeles on Friday, March 27, 2020, to provide relief for Southland hospitals overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. Also attending the press conference were Director Mark Ghilarducci, Cal OES, left, Admiral John Gumbleton, United States Navy, right, and many others not shown including Mayor Eric Garcetti and Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary of Health and Human Services. (Photo by Carolyn Cole-Pool/Getty Images)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in an April 30 press briefing that the state would be forcing Orange County beaches to temporarily shut down, after approximately 40,000 people attended those beaches over the weekend.

The closure will start May 1 and doesn’t have a set end date. Newsom said he felt the closures were necessary because the “the images we saw on a few of our beaches were disturbing.”

“My job as governor is to keep you safe,” he added.

Newsom said he hoped the closures are “a very short-term adjustment.”

On April 29, FOX 11 Los Angeles reporter Bill Melugin unearthed a memo sent to police chiefs across the state stating all state and local beaches would be closed.

Newsom distanced himself from the memo during the April 30 press briefing. “That memo never got to me,” he said. “Those doing good work, we want to reward that good work and behavior … that’s where I’ve been the entire time.”

However, Los Angeles Times reporter John Myers tweeted that sources told him “statewide action was imminent — contrary to the way [Newsom] now portrays it.”

Also on April 30, the Newport Beach Police Department released photos from the weekend and said in a statement that “the vast majority of beach goers [were] practicing social distancing. There were, in places, some clusters of people that were not social distancing.”

Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner said in an April 29 statement that he disagreed with Newsom’s decision.

“Medical professionals tell us the importance of fresh air and sunlight in fighting infectious diseases, including mental health benefits,” the statement read. “Moreover, Orange County citizens have been cooperative with California state and county restrictions thus far. I fear that this overreaction from the state will undermine that cooperative attitude and our collective efforts to fight this disease, based on the best medical information.”

The Los Angeles Police Department tweeted on April 30 that city beaches remain closed.

 

As of this writing, there are 46,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases in California and 1,887 deaths from the virus in the state.

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