With the 4th of July weekend on the horizon, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that 19 counties will have to immediately close down indoor operations for at least three weeks.
Santa Clara County is one of the 19 counties, but this announcement doesn’t change much as the sectors that are ordered to close are not currently open in the county. Santa Clara County has been erring on the side of caution at a pace slower than the rest of the state, thus avoiding having to pull back during this time of case increases.
The affected counties were put on the list because they have been on the State’s Monitoring List for at least three consecutive days. Sectors that must close their indoor operations include restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos and museums, and cardrooms. Additionally, bars must close all operations even if they are operating outdoors. A few days ago, Newsom called for the required closure of bars in some counties and recommended closing them in others — now that is a mandated order.
The affected counties must close the stated sectors for at least three weeks unless they can be modified to operate outside or by pick-up. The goal, according to the Governor, is to avoid being indoors for extended periods of time.
Additionally, state parking at beaches across California are closed. In Ventura and Los Angeles counties, the local leaders have opted to close their beaches, so they have also opted to have the state beaches closed within their counites.
Newsom gave the evidence behind these decisions saying that two weeks ago, the State’s positivity rate was 4.6 percent for a 14-day period, however, the positivity rate is now 6.0 percent. If you look at a seven-day period, the State’s positivity rate is 6.4 percent. Additionally, 110 COVID-19 related deaths were reported across the state over the last 24 hours.
Locally, using the numbers reported today, Santa Clara County reported an additional 210 cases for a total of 4,571 cumulative cases. There were two new deaths bringing the total to 158. The County’s positivity rate is currently 2.62 percent, which is a seven-day average.