California Has Ordered All Counties To Shut Down Indoor Dining

Announced on a livestream earlier this afternoon, Governor Gavin Newsom of California has announced that indoor operations for restaurants and wineries must shut down. Bars will have to close all operations. The Governor cited trendlines of hospitalizations, ICU capacity, and positivity rate as the reasons for the reversal of reopening plans.

The stay-at-home order was meant to be like 'a dimmer switch' and as different conditions presented themselves, the state would modify that order to avoid fully opening or closing. In addition to the hospitality industry, other sectors including movie theaters, zoos, cardrooms, and museums were also shut down. Other services like fitness and church services are being considered on a county by county basis. This change goes into effect immediately. 

Newsom said that about 80% of California's county will go on monitoring lists that will have increased assistance and mitigation strategies implemented to stem the growing COVID-19 case count. The current 7-day average for California is 8,211 daily cases being reported and a positivity rate of 7.4%. 

Gavin noted that 'this virus is not going away anytime soon" and it is incumbent of Californians to continue to be diligent in their awareness and fight against this pandemic.

This is a developing story.