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 The restrictions in California, ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom to
take effect on a region-by-region basis as hospital intensive care
unit beds are filled almost to capacity, call for bars, hair and
nail salons and tattoo shops to close again.
As of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, the affected regions were also required
to shut down even outdoor restaurant dining.
Newsom, a first-term Democrat, has threatened to withhold funds from
local governments that refuse to carry out the restrictions.
The clampdown has angered some Californians eight months into the
pandemic, including some law enforcement officials. The sheriffs of
Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties have said they won't help
impose them.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a videotaped message
posted on the department's website that his office "will not be
blackmailed, bullied or used as muscle" against county residents to
enforce the governor's orders.
"Orange County Sheriff's deputies will not be dispatched to, or
respond to, calls for service to enforce compliance with face
coverings, social gatherings or stay at home orders," his
counterpart in Orange County, Don Barnes, said in a written
statement.
The San Francisco Bay Area will also go into lockdown starting at 10
p.m. on Sunday, under a separate set of orders issued by Mayor
London Breed.
Newsom and Breed have both been sharply criticized after dining on
separate nights at a posh Napa Valley restaurant, the French
Laundry, in November despite repeatedly admonishing Californians to
avoid such outings.
GIULIANI TESTS POSITIVE
California reported more than 30,000 new cases on Sunday, exceeding
the state's previous high of 21,986 set on Dec. 4, and marked a new
record for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. New Jersey, North
Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia also announced record one-day
rises in new infections.
As the nation struggles under the latest surge in the pandemic, Dr.
Deborah Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator,
complained on Sunday of mixed messages coming from U.S. governors.
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"Right now, across the Sun Belt, we have governors and mayors who have cases
equivalent to what they had in the summertime yet aren't putting in the same
policies and mitigations that they put in the summer, that they know changed the
course of this pandemic across the South," she said in an interview on NBC's
"Meet the Press" show.
President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat who defeated Donald Trump in the Nov. 3
election, has said that on taking office on Jan. 20 he will enact mask mandates
where he has authority, such as at federal buildings and for interstate travel.
Trump said on Twitter that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, his
personal lawyer, had tested positive for the virus. Trump did not say if
Giuliani was experiencing symptoms or had quarantined.
In New York City, one of the early epicenters of the U.S. pandemic, some public
schools in the nation's largest school district prepared to reopen for daily
in-person classes on Monday after a citywide shutdown.
An estimated 190,000 children in programs geared for early childhood, elementary
and special needs students will be eligible to return to classrooms, the city
said.
Neighboring New Jersey over the weekend halted indoor youth sports after at
least 28 outbreaks affected 170 people. Governor Phil Murphy's ban targets
sports such as basketball, ice hockey and swimming, including practice and
competition, until at least Jan. 2.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Doina Chiacu in Washington, D.C. and
Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Daniel Wallis and Paul
Simao)
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