California’s health order ignored by a lot of public
MANHATTAN BEACH >> In the Southern California oceanside city of Manhattan Beach, one arm of government is urging residents to stay home except for essential needs while another is encouraging them to get out and shop and even providing places where they can sit down to relax, eat takeout and watch the sun set over the Pacific.
It’s one example of confusing messages from governments as most of California is under a broad shutdown order that includes an overnight curfew to try to stem record-breaking coronavirus cases that threaten to overwhelm the hospital system.
While state and county health officials are pleading with residents to stay home and only mingle with those in their household, the order allows all retailers to remain open with 20% capacity and encourages people to get outside to exercise.
Manhattan Beach Mayor Suzanne Hadley said her community saw an opportunity to aid local businesses while meeting the stipulations of the order. The solution: repurposing city- owned patio areas set up to allow restaurants to serve diners outdoors — which no longer is allowed — into “public seating areas” where downtown shoppers can relax.
“Shopping for a Christmas gift, buying a to- go meal, watching a sunset are allowed, and even the outdoor activities are encouraged by the state,” she said.
Manhattan Beach in is Los Angeles County, the state’s largest with 10 million residents and disproportionately large numbers of California’s coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
On Thursday, when the state set a one-day record of 220 deaths, county Health Director Barbara Ferrer said if people don’t follow orders to stay home except for essential needs and not mingle with people outside their households, “we are running a risk that could have catastrophic consequences, with hospitals becoming overwhelmed and severely ill patients not able to get the care they need.”
Ferrer said the county needs to return to the restrictions of the spring at the beginning of the pandemic.
The shutdown order by Gov. Gavin Newsom took effect last weekend, but it seems to be having a min
imal effect on daily life. It allows many more activities than the March shutdown that made the state
a model on how to respond to the pandemic.
Marissa Englund was among about two dozen hair stylists who protested Thursday outside the office of Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s public health officer. Hair salons are among the businesses shuttered by the latest health order.
“They’re basically contradicting themselves because they’re telling everybody to shelter in place and stay at home as much as you can but go ahead and go Christmas shopping,” Englund said.
Back in March, all retail in California was closed. T he normally clogged streets of San Francisco were so desolate that for weeks birds could be heard singing at all times of day.
But their tweets have long been replaced by the din of cars and delivery trucks racing down major thoroughfares. The parking lot of a Target store in the city was almost full one afternoon this week with shoppers going in and out and no one verifying the store was operating at the required 20% capacity.