Governor Orders Orange County Beaches Closed, Allows Others to Stay Open

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Acting he said to protect public health, Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday ordered beaches in Orange County to close, at least for now, this after large crowds gathered last Saturday during a Southern California heatwave.

While praising the vast majority of beachgoers across the state, Newsom said the images of crowded beaches and the apparent disregard by many of social distancing forced him to temporarily “pause” beach access in Orange County.

Meantime, with rumors that the governor would close beaches throughout the state, elected officials in San Diego County and elsewhere pushed back against those plans, saying that beachgoers in that county as well as most of the state were properly abiding by social distancing guidelines.

State of California guidance allows local health officers to determine if and when parks and beaches are reopened. Although many counties across the state now allow beach access, Sonoma County beaches continued to be closed, even as parks in the county were reopened to neighborhood residents on Wednesday after being closed since late March.

In his daily briefing, the governor acknowledged that only a few beaches in Orange County had been apparent violation, and left other beach access uneffected. He also said that the state was far from out of danger, citing a day to day increase in new cases, and a slight uptick in hospitalizations.