California’s Governor Newsom Shames Beachgoers For Violating Stay-at Home Order

California Governor Gavin Newsom appeared to scold residents of the state who defied his ‘stay-at-home’ order over the weekend in a Monday livestream event, referencing photographs that revealed the state’s beaches packed with people.

Imagery of public beaches near Huntington Beach and Los Angeles revealed crowds of Californians basking in the sun and warm weather, many not appearing to care about the need to keep six feet away from others are part of the state’s social distancing requirements.

After congratulating the “40 million” Californians he described as abiding by the state’s social distancing regulations, Newsom threw shade at the state’s residents who hit the beaches, claiming that they would potentially lengthen the state of emergency from weeks to months.

That’s why I want to just confront the topic that is top of mind: And those are the images we saw over the weekend. Images, down in Orange County and Ventura County, on our beaches. Those images are an example of what not to see – [for] people, what not to do – if we’re going to make the meaningful progress that we’ve made in the last few weeks extend into the next number of weeks.”

The beaches in Orange and Ventura County are administered by local officials who declined to officially close them.

California may have passed its peak for coronavirus casualties last week, with 115 residents of the state dying from the disease on Thursday.

There’s a case to be made that California’s beachgoers are really being irresponsible and that they should wait for the curve to fully flatten before hitting the surf. But certainly the state is in no position to lecture far more rural and less densely populated states when plenty of Californians are having trouble abiding by social distancing on their own.

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