Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: California Today: California Lockdowns Go Into Effect

California Today: California Lockdowns Go Into Effect

December 7, 2020

A coronavirus testing site at Gonzales Park in Compton.Philip Cheung for The New York Times

By Jill Cowan and Marie Tae McDermott

Good morning.

When Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced plans for strict new stay-at-home orders tied to intensive care unit capacity, we knew they would probably go into effect within days. But the speed with which available I.C.U. capacity in two of the state’s most populous regions dropped below the 15 percent threshold was testament to the horrifying trajectory of the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

By Saturday, the state reported that intensive care capacity in the already hard-hit San Joaquin Valley had dipped to just 8.6 percent, while the Southern California region encompassing Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego Counties had dipped to 12.5 percent.

In the Bay Area, where local public health officials have driven some of the most aggressive shutdowns in the country, five counties pre-emptively implemented the state’s stay-at-home order, even though it wasn’t yet mandated by the state.

[What to know about California’s stay-at-home order.]

The new lockdowns, which went into effect Sunday night, come after a summer and autumn marked by shifting restrictions that many criticized as unevenly enforced and of varying effectiveness.

So this time — while state and local health officials have described the spread of the virus as much more frightening and dangerous — restrictions have been met with more skepticism in some quarters, and outright defiance in others.

Los Angeles restaurants have been fighting the shuttering of outdoor dining, which county officials announced ahead of the state’s order. (More on that below.)

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On Saturday, streets that had until recently been alive with diners sitting on sidewalks or in parking lots were quieter, but shoppers still streamed into grocery stores and clustered outside restaurants waiting for takeout.

In Orange County, where local officials and residents have been more vocally defiant about restrictions, Sheriff Don Barnes released a statement saying his office would not enforce the state’s order.

“Compliance with health orders is a matter of personal responsibility and not a matter of law enforcement,” he said.

Restaurants in the sprawling southern suburbs of Orange County were serving diners indoors as recently as Friday, though the county was supposed to close indoor dining rooms last month.

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Governor Newsom has repeatedly said that the state will try to take a light touch in enforcing its mandates, but that it could withhold aid money from counties that refuse to comply.

Still, experts have said the lack of teeth built into the state’s orders leaves many workers vulnerable.

[Read more about how the pandemic has shown why health equity is critical.]

Ana Padilla, the executive director of the University of California, Merced’s Community and Labor Center, said in an email that, as in the state’s prior lockdowns, the new order was likely to be most effective at controlling the virus in communities with many middle-class workers who can work remotely.

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“It will do less for workers who have no choice but to work in low-wage, essential jobs, in which they frequently come into contact with others,” she said.

Over the summer, the center released an analysis that showed a connection between counties, particularly in the San Joaquin Valley, that have high concentrations of low-wage work and the prevalence of the virus. And communities across the San Joaquin Valley have long struggled with access to health care, even before the pandemic cast a harsh light on the region’s scarcity of hospital beds.

[If you missed it, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. picked California’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services at a crucial time.]

Ms. Padilla and other experts have been saying for months that many lower-wage workers have had to choose between making a living and risking their lives at jobs where employers may not be transparent about outbreaks and may not provide benefits that would allow workers to take time off to isolate.

She acknowledged that the state had taken some recent steps to protect workers, but said the question was whether those policies would be rigorously implemented and enforced.

“Seems like we need comprehensive Covid-19 policy just as much as a stay-at-home order,” she said.

(This article is part of the California Today newsletter. Sign up to get it delivered to your inbox.)

Why Los Angeles Banned Outdoor Dining

Outdoor dining in Pasadena last week.Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Marie Tae McDermott wrote this dispatch, about the underpinnings of Los Angeles County’s contested ban on outdoor dining:

Even before the state announced wider restrictions, officials ordered Angelenos to stay at home except when doing essential activities and forbid gatherings of more than one household.

“It’s time to hunker down,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said last week. “It’s time to cancel everything.”

This came on top of Los Angeles County’s ban on outdoor dining, issued on Nov. 25, which has already affected tens of thousands of restaurant owners and their workers.

“We know we are asking a lot from so many who have been sacrificing for months on end,” Barbara Ferrer, the public health director, said last week. “Acting with collective urgency right now is essential if we want to put a stop to this surge.”

But the decision to shut down outdoor dining has been met with intense opposition. The California Restaurant Association challenged the ban in court, saying that the county provided no scientific basis for the shutdown.

And on Wednesday, a judge ordered Los Angeles County health officials to show evidence that would justify the ban by early this week.

[Read more about the fight over outdoor dining in Los Angeles.]

Some cities within the county like Lancaster, Whittier and West Covina are now weighing if they should open up their own health departments so that they are no longer under the county’s jurisdiction. The Beverly Hills City Council voted unanimously to oppose the county health order. Health officials in Pasadena, which already has its own health department, decided not to follow the county’s outdoor dining ban when it was announced. On Sunday evening, restaurants in Pasadena closed all outdoor dining after the state’s stay-at-home order.

[Track Covid-19 cases by California county.]

Opponents of the ban argue that it will deliver a death blow to thousands of establishments in an already struggling industry.

But Dr. Anne W. Rimoin, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Epidemiology and director of the Center for Global and Immigrant Health, said that these were difficult but necessary restrictions.

“Restaurants are places where people are together in congregate settings with masks off for extended periods of time,” Dr. Rimoin said.

This risk of transmission is compounded, she said, by the fact that dining tables are often made up of people from multiple households.

“We’ve got such an incredible surge in cases,” Dr. Rimoin said. “We’re trying to do everything we can to save lives.”

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here and read every edition online here.

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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