Gov. Newsom to stay-at-home order protesters: ‘We share exactly the same goals’

As Gov. Newsom commended Californians for beginning to flatten the curve on Monday, protesters converged outside of the state Capitol building to oppose the statewide stay-at-home order instituted a month ago to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People need to get back to work, get back to life, get back into contact with their loved ones’ who they’re isolated from, they need to be able to have a paycheck,” said protester Tara Thornton. “This is the grounds they will enslave us upon.”

The planned protest in Sacramento was one of many that have cropped up across the nation in recent days as tension swells around orders placed on residents to stay home and close up schools and businesses.

During his daily press briefing on Monday afternoon, Newsom said that he “deeply understands peoples’ anxieties,” but that the state must have a “health-first focus if we’re ultimately going to come back economically.”

“The worst decision we can make is making a precipitous decision based on politics and frustration,” he said. “That puts people’s lives at risk and ultimately sets back the cause of economic growth and economic recovery.”

Freedom Angels, an organization that last year protested a new state law restricting medical exemptions for vaccines required for students, obtained a permit to hold a rally of up to 500 people on the steps of the capitol on Monday, according to the website of the California Highway Patrol’s capitol protection section, which issues such permits.

It is unclear at this time how the organization acquired a permit despite the current statewide stay-at-home order banning any large gatherings.

Newsom, who asked that the protesters still abide by social distancing requirements, said that he and the protesters “share exactly the same goals” of reopening the economy, but that reductions in the number of patients in hospitals and ICU beds must guide that reopening.

“We are deeply focused on what that reopening looks like,” Newsom said during a press briefing Monday afternoon. “We just want to do that in a very deliberate and thoughtful way to keep those protesters safe and keep their families and the broader community in California safe.”

According to data compiled by this news organization, more than 31,000 people in California have tested positive for COVID-19, including more than 6,400 in the Bay Area. As on Monday morning, the state’s coronavirus-related death toll had risen to 1,208, according to Newsom.

Following the state’s deadliest week since the pandemic began, Newsom said California’s COVID-19 curve is bending and “beginning to flatten, but it is still nonetheless rising.”

The governor said that California hospitals experienced a 1.9 percent spike in coronavirus patients since Sunday and that the number of patients in ICU units increased by 2.8 percent.

“Deaths continue to rise, hospitalization numbers modestly continuing to rise and ICU numbers are beginning to flatten,” Newsom said. “But we’re not seeing that downward trend we need to see in order to provide more clarity on that roadmap to recovery which we rolled out last week.”

Over the weekend, Ventura County in southern California loosened some of the restrictions in its county stay-at-home order. The county modified its order to allow some businesses that don’t serve the public to operate with 10 or fewer employees. Gatherings of up to five people are now permitted. And, golf courses, auto dealerships and bike repair shops are permitted to reopen.

Newsom said Monday that county officials did consult with members of his team before loosening the order.

“What’s important to remember is that none of these local health directives can go further backwards than the state guidance, so there is a cap in terms of loosening at the local level,” Newsom said. “The cap is an expectation that they do not go beyond those state orders.

The Sacramento Bee contributed to this story.