Californians told to stay home indefinitely

Quarantine not to be enforced by police as 40 million residents to venture out only for essential jobs, errands

Sacramento (US), March 20: California’s 40 million residents should stay home indefinitely and venture outside only for essential jobs, errands and some exercise, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday, warning that the coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the state's medical system.

The move, the most sweeping by any state in the US so far, was an exclamation point at the end of a week of increasingly aggressive moves meant to keep the virus in check by forcing people to stay away from each other as often as possible. “I can assure you home isolation is not my preferred choice, I know it’s not yours, but it’s a necessary one,” Newsom said at a news conference streamed on social media.

He assured residents that they “can still take your kids outside, practicing common sense and social distancing. You can still walk your dog.”

Restaurant meals can still be delivered to homes.

The announcement came after the release of a letter to US President Donald Trump where Newsom warned the virus was spreading quickly and eventually could infect more than half the state’s population. A spokesman later clarified that the figure did not take into account the aggressive mitigation efforts that were made. The governor said he doesn’t expect police will be needed to enforce his stay-at-home order, saying “social pressure” already has led to social distancing throughout the state.

“I don’t believe the people of California need to be told through law enforcement that it’s appropriate just isolate,” he said.

The Democrat who is barely a year into his first term also called up 500 National Guard troops to help distribute food. The move comes after panic buying led to massive lines at some grocery stores.

He said the state has taken over a 357-bed bankrupt hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, soon will announce the purchase of a similarly sized hospital in Southern California and may use to home dormitories at the state’s public colleges and universities.

He also asked Trump to dock the Navy’s 1,000patient Mercy hospital ship in the Port of Los Angeles. The coronavirus is spread through sneezes and coughs. There are at least 1,030 confirmed cases in California and 18 people have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Newsom’s statewide order came after counties and communities covering about half the state’s population already had issued similar edicts.

He said the restriction is “open-ended” because it could raise false hopes if he included an end date. However, he did offer a glimmer by saying he didn’t expect it would last “many, many months." Just before Newsom’s statewide declaration, Los Angeles announced what officials there called a “Safer at Home” order that carried the same restrictions.