Why California is closing again

California has now proven the efficacy of coronavirus distancing measures twice — first by imposing them and then by abandoning them. Bay Area officials’ vanguard shelterinplace orders, followed by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s, kept the state’s share of the deadly pandemic strikingly low for months considering its high population and early exposures. In recent weeks, however, the governor and most local officials lifted the restrictions almost as suddenly as they were imposed, with equally dramatic but opposite results.

Both the Bay Area and California have repeatedly broken daily records for new infections over the past two weeks as weekly averages turned sharply upward, paralleling the national resurgence of the pandemic. Of still greater concern are rising hospitalizations, which aren’t influenced by increased testing for the virus and could overwhelm care capacity, making the disease more deadly. As of Sunday, the state had broken confirmed coronavirusrelated hospitalization records for 10 consecutive days and seen the figure increase by more than half over two weeks.

While California’s death rate remains low compared with states that suffered major outbreaks in the Northeast and Midwest, the rising numbers of infected and seriously ill people portend a grim narrowing of the gap.

After months of economic hardship and social isolation, Californians want to forget about the coronavirus, and so do many of our leaders. Newsom delegated much of the responsibility for resuming activities to local officials, and many rushed through the phases of reopening to the point that risky businesses such as bars and gyms restarted in highinfection regions such as the Bay Area and Los Angeles. Governments leaped ahead of their own testing and tracing benchmarks as well as mask mandates and other precautions.

While state and local officials can’t control private gatherings or mass protests, their quick retreat from distancing measures contributed to a false sense that the danger of the virus had disappeared. The state and nation certainly have to get back to business, but with reopening now turning to reclosing, the lesson of the past month is that we must do so carefully and responsibly.