Newsom Says Stay-at-Home Order Extension ‘Likely’ Amid Covid-19 Surge ‘Stacked on Top’ of Surges Related to Holidays

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday he would likely extend stay-at-home orders across a large swath of California amid a Covid-19 surge “stacked on top” of surges related to the holiday season.

“We likely will experience in two weeks, 10, 14, 18 days from now, this surge stacked on top of these other surges related to holiday activities,” Newsom said at an afternoon press conference

He also said the state was doing “everything” to enhance medical staff, and to “really be vigilant in terms of our promotion of alternative strategies as we wait for the vaccines to mitigate spread — [including] new PSA campaigns which we hope you are seeing, new billboards, new messaging, in store-messaging in grocery stores, as well as more culturally competent messaging on social media to connect with people.”

The orders, which were set to expire on Monday, will be extended in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Three other regions will not be affected, including Northern California, where a stay-at-home order is not in effect.

Ravaged by the virus, California has experienced a 38 percent increase in hospitalizations related to Covid-19 over the last two weeks. It witnessed 970,813 new cases of the virus in the first 27 days of December alone, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, more than the total number of infections reported by any other state this year, with the exceptions of Texas and Florida.

Watch above via KCRA.