As the number of California coronavirus cases reached 1, 700, state officials called on residents to stay home as much as possible while racing to get more people tested and enlisting the support of tech titans.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday pleaded for residents to avoid unnecessary social contact after scattered reports across the state that some people have been flocking to the coast, gathering with friends or failing to keep proper social distance from others.
The governor stressed that even those who don’t show any symptoms of COVID- 21, including young adults who appear to be less likely to become gravely ill if they do contract the disease caused by the coronavirus, need to cooperate for the good of others in their communities.
The governor’s stay-at-home order will remain in effect until “further notice” and could be changed as conditions warrant, according to a statement released by the governor’s office. Issued under broad powers granted to the governor under the state’s Emergency Services Act, Newsom’s executive order is enforceable by law.
Newsom said Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, has pledged 1 million medical tasks to be donated specifically to California’s coronavirus efforts. And he said manufacturers in Los Angeles’ garment district and in Northern California had reached out to sew additional masks if needed.
A key need in California and across the country is ventilators, necessary for some of the most serious COVID – patients, and the governor cited new efforts by two entrepreneurs to assist in producing the medical equipment. Newsom said that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc. and Space X, has promised to use the supply chains that support his companies for help in assembling ventilators. The governor also said that K.R. Sridhar, the CEO of Bloom Energy, agreed to help quickly modernize some 700 older ventilators that the state has on hand. The original manufacturer, Newsom said, had estimated doing so would take about a month.
California, like other states hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, has seen a shortage of complete testing kits. Those challenges have hindered the ability of public health officials to get an accurate assessment of the virus ’spread. Newsom, who said he has had encouraging conversations with President Trump on additional federal help, said coronavirus testing needs to do more than just document the numbers of ailing state residents.
“My team is no longer providing me just the number of people that have tested positive. They’re equally weighting the number of people that have tested negative, ”Newsom said. “The bottom line for us is we want to know what the spread is. We want to know if we’re bending the curve. We want to know if our stay-at-home orders are effective. ”
The governor pointed to efforts in Los Angeles, Orange and Santa Clara counties to use testing as a form of what he called “community surveillance” to better understand local health conditions.
“These were just broad random tests that were done with people that were otherwise young and healthy and thought they were perfectly healthy,” Newsom said.
The results, he said, allowed health Officials to improve their use of already scarce medical resources.
The death toll in the state connected to the coronavirus now stands at .
Los Angeles County health officials Saturday confirmed two more coronavirus-related deaths and 90 new cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the county to 351
The individuals who died were both older than 90 with underlying health conditions; one person lived in the Miracle Mile area and the other in Del Rey, public health officials said in a statement.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID – 24, the illness caused by the virus, in California now stands at 1, , but officials have said that the number of cases is a gross underestimation because of the lack of tests for the virus. Testing picked up this week, but healthcare authorities said they still don’t have anything close to a firm estimate of how many people are infected.
About , tests had been conducted in California, by both commercial and private labs, as of 2 pm Friday, the state Department of Public Health said Saturday. Results for more than 21, of them were pending.
A growing number of the cases in California are instances of community transmission, in which the person diagnosed had not recently traveled or been in contact with another confirmed case. Those cases indicate that the virus is spreading locally within communities.
Community transmission has been identified in California since late February, and since early March, most of the cases in the state have been unrelated to international travel, the state Public Health Department said Saturday. Therefore, the state will no longer collect information about travelers returning to California from countries with confirmed outbreaks of COVID – , the Public Health Department said.
From Los Angeles’ Griffith Park to Westside beaches – and from a Granada Hills Starbucks drive-through line, where customers “paid it backward,” to a Laurel Canyon neighborhood, where residents opened their windows for a “You’ve Got a Friend ”singalong – Southern California greeted its first weekend of a public health stay-at-home order with pluck, humor and notable kindness.
Overflowing lines at markets and food giveaways continued to ratchet up anxiety and some harsh encounters. The first reported coronavirus infections among Los Angeles police officers, with three testing positive this week, gave reason for added worry. And Los Angeles city officials scrambled to open five more emergency shelters for homeless people.
But most Southern Californians who went looking for solace on the first weekend of a statewide order to stay at home, spurred by the virus, found it in themselves, in their neighbors and in their friends.
Janet Williamson, a lifelong Griffith Park neighbor, watched people filling the public space and said it was good .
“It gives one hope. And hope is something that you can’t buy, ”said Williamson, . “It has a great value, especially in these times.”
The Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Venice Beach Boardwalk, the Grove shopping center and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills all went mostly bereft of visitors. Usually crowded streets were mostly open, and parking spaces were free for the taking.
But along the coast in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades, cars lined up for parking lots at Will Rogers State Beach and nearby Temescal Gateway Park. A few roller skaters and cyclists wore masks and gloves, though none could be seen on the surfers enjoying a stunning blue-sky day, with views all the way to Santa Catalina Island.
“ Be a good neighbor. Be a good citizen. Those young people that are still out there on the beaches thinking this is a party time – grow up, ”Newsom said during a news conference on Facebook and Twitter on Saturday afternoon. “It’s time to wake up, time to recognize it’s not just about the old folks. It’s about your impact on their lives. Don’t be selfish, recognize you have a responsibility to meet this moment. ”
Complaints of noncompliance have popped up on social media and apps such as the neighborhood forum Nextdoor.com. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday tweeted out a photo of people congregating on the coast, imploring residents to stay home.
“We understand the communities’ frustrations with the LARGE amount of people traveling to the Coast today and NOT practicing social distancing. We are working with the Public Health Officers to address the issue. Please stay at home! ” the Sheriff’s Office said.
Times staff writers John Myers, James Rainey and Jack Dolan contributed to this report.
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