San Diego County Ordered To Move Businesses, Services Outdoors

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA — Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday ordered San Diego County to close indoor activities at various businesses amid a continued surge in coronavirus cases.

Indoor operations must stop at fitness centers, malls, hair salons and barbershops, nail and other personal-care salons, tattoo parlors, places of worship, and non-essential office settings. The businesses may remain open, but only if they can be modified to operate outside or by pick-up service, Newsom said.

Indoor protests are also prohibited, but any such outdoor activities are still allowed, he said.

The order affects 30 counties on the state's COVID-19 watch list — including all Southern California counties: San Diego, Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura.

Other counties on the list include Colusa, Contra Costa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Kings, Madera, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, San Benito, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Yolo, and Yuba.

Newsom also ordered the statewide closure of indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, aquariums, family entertainment centers and card rooms, as well as the full closure of all bars. Those restrictions were already in place in counties on the state's monitoring list but the new order extended them statewide.

Don't miss local and statewide news about coronavirus developments and precautions. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

The number of COVID-19 cases in San Diego County surpassed 20,000 Monday.

Public health officials reported 419 new COVID-19 cases, raising the county's total to 20,348 cases. The death toll remained at 422.

Of the 6,542 tests reported Monday, 6 percent returned positive, in line with the 14-day rolling average.

"The pandemic is not over," said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county's public health officer. "The virus is still in our community, and it is widespread."

Statewide, there have been record numbers of infections in recent days, along with increasing hospitalizations. As of Monday, Newsom said 6,485 people were hospitalized across the state due to the coronavirus. The seven-day rolling average of people testing positive for the virus was 7.7 percent.

Newsom reiterated that the state's enactment of health-restrictions was being handled with a "dimmer switch," meaning the severity of the orders can be adjusted upward or downward based on the latest virus statistics and "trendlines."

"This virus is not going away anytime soon," he said.

"I hope all of us recognize that if we were still connected to some notion that somehow when it gets warm it's going to go away or somehow it's going to take summer months or weekends off, this virus has done neither. You've seen parts of the country with very hot ... weather where you're seeing an increase in positivity rates, an increase in hospitalizations and ICUs. Here in the state of California as we're seeing triple-digit weather in many parts of our state, we're still seeing an increase in the positivity rate, the community transmission. We're seeing an increase in the spread of the virus."

Also see:

• California Coronavirus: Latest Updates On Cases, Orders, Closures
• Coronavirus In San Diego County: Latest News
• San Diego Unified Schools To Remain Closed Due To Coronavirus

City News Service contributed to this report.