California orders all bars to close and restaurants to stop indoor operations

• California ordered all bars to close and multiple businesses to halt indoor operations statewide on Monday in response to the increase in COVID-19 cases.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that all restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, museums, and cardrooms must halt their indoor services.
• California, which has reported over 331,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, has a seven-day average of over 8,000 new cases and 96 new deaths per day, according to The New York Times.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered all bars to close and multiple businesses to halt indoor operations statewide as COVID-19 cases continued to rise in the state.

Previously, the state had rolled out county-level restrictions for certain parts of the state that were experiencing particularly bad outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

But with both cases and deaths substantially increasing over the past few weeks, Newsom's office took the step of ordering all bars to close both indoor and outdoor service. The state also halted indoor services for restaurants, wineries, movie theaters, zoos, museums, and cardrooms.

—Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 13, 2020

Counties that are placed on a state "monitoring list" must also close indoor operations at gyms and fitness centers, beauty salons, worship centers, malls, and most office spaces.

In comments to reporters, Newsom said the virus "is not going away anytime soon" and that the current outbreak in California proved warm weather does not help to stem the virus' spread. He added that restrictions would have to remain in place "until there is a vaccine and/or an effective therapy," according to Politico.

California had reported over 331,600 confirmed cases of the virus and over 7,000 deaths as of Monday, with a seven-day average of over 8,000 new cases, a 7.4% rate of test positivity, and 96 new deaths per day.

Thousands of California students will also attend school online for the foreseeable future, officials said.

Earlier on Monday, the Los Angeles Unified School District — the second-largest public-school district in the nation — and the San Diego Unified School District said they would continue to hold online instruction for classes into the fall. The two school districts combined serve an estimated 825,000 students, according to The New York Times.