Newsom extends COVID emergency rules
SACRAMENTO – How long will California be in a state of emergency due to COVID-19?
Gov. Gavin Newsom last week issued an executive order that extends certain portions of his March 4, 2020, emergency proclamation through March 31, 2022 – raising questions about what conditions would prompt Newsom or state lawmakers to phase out the emergency powers that have shaped Californians’ lives for nearly two years and affected more than 400 laws and regulations.
In extending California’s ability to hire out-ofstate healthcare workers and waive certain licensing requirements, among other things, Newsom cited “the potential beginning of a new surge in COVID-19 cases” and “short-staffed and backlogged” healthcare facilities. It’s a rationale similar to the one he gave in June, when he said he would keep California’s state of emergency in place even as the economy fully reopened: “This disease has not been extinguished.”
Erin Mellon, a Newsom spokesperson, said on Sunday: “The state of emergency ensures the state can continue to respond quickly to evolving conditions as the pandemic persists. As we have seen, this virus and variants are unpredictable. The state of emergency will be ended once conditions no longer warrant an emergency response.”
The news comes as some Californians seek clarity on milestones that would prompt the state to unwind its emergency measures. Two UCSF doctors – including the director of the emergency department’s COVID response – recently started a petition calling on Newsom to identify metrics under which the state would lift its school mask mandate.
On Friday, a superior court judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the mask mandate, citing the governor’s emergency authority. ( However, the judge also noted that districts can decide for themselves how to enforce the mandate and whether they want to follow the state’s testing and quarantine guidelines.)
Meanwhile, resistance to mask and vaccine mandates appears to be growing in corners of the state that have long opposed Newsom’s COVID rules. A handful of rural Northern California school districts recently voted to defy Newsom’s student COVID-19 vaccine mandate once it goes into effect, putting them at risk of losing millions of dollars in state funding.
Said Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, a UC Hastings College of the Law professor: “I wonder how many districts will hold to their views when it’s real show time. … Especially given the fact that unless the Legislature acts, the mandate will have an open-ended personal belief exemption, so no parent would actually have to vaccinate.”
Vitriol has grown so intense in some rural areas that local governments are dealing with what one state emergency official called a “stark acceleration of domestic violent extremism.” Last week, the Butte County town of Oroville made national headlines for declaring itself a “constitutional republic” in opposition to Newsom’s pandemic rules.
In Imperial County, the state face- covering and vaccine mandates have resulted in boisterous and sustained opposition from those arguing they violate constitutional rights. Dozens of opponents have appeared at meetings of the county Board of Supervisors and local school boards and staged protests outside schools in support of school staff who do not wish to be vaccinated.
They were stirred when the county board in August went beyond the state rule and voted to require face coverings at indoor public locations regardless of vaccine status. The state only held such a requirement for the unvaccinated.
The county board lifted that extended mandate effective Nov. 1 but that did little to appease protestors, who say they will fight on until the state mandates are overturned. They have also requested local agencies to object in writing to the state mandates and even said they should simply stop enforcing them.
Members of the county board have said they will discuss the matter with other county officials at an upcoming meeting of the California State Association of Counties. District 4 Supervisor Ryan Kelley, the lone vote against the county’s extended mask mandate in August, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newson outlining his opposition to the state mandates.
Meanwhile, county Public Health officials have defended the precautions and noted more than 80 percent of eligible county residents are vaccinated. More than 288,000 vaccines have been administered in the county.
But nothing can match the Wild West of the internet, where social media users recently circulated a “deepfake” video edited to make it look like one side of Newsom’s face was drooping in reaction to his COVID-19 booster shot. Newsom last week characterized such rumors about his nearly two-week absence from public events as “a rabbit hole of conspiracies,” adding that he didn’t have any reaction to the booster shot and had been spending time with family.
The coronavirus bottom line: As of Saturday, California had 4,731,592 confirmed cases (+ 0.3 percent from previous day) and 72,436 deaths (+0.2 percent from previous day), according to state data.
California has administered 55,544,488 vaccine doses, and 66.6 percent of eligible Californians are fully vaccinated.
Among the latest group eligible to get the COVID shot, children ages 5-11, county Public Health reported Monday 8.7 percent are at least partially vaccinated among the county’s population of about 22,000 in that group.
As of Thursday, Public Health reported had 418 active cases of Covid-19, a decrease from the 500plus cases in previous weeks. The county death toll stood at 766. The number of new cases per 100,000 population was 24.1 and the positivity rate of applied tests 9.4 percent.
Calexico had the most active cases with 137, followed by El Centro with 98, Brawley 67 and Imperial 39. Public Health reported 44 hospitalized patients, of which 14 were in intensive care.
CalMatters is an award-winning, non-partisan, non-profit journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. Imperial Valley Press reporter Gary Redfern contributed to this story.