Photo credit: Sofia Gallegos

Last weekend, Orange County opened its beaches after temperatures reached a high of 95 degrees. Thousands of people flocked to the beach to finally get out of the house despite the risk of exposing themselves to the virus.

This type of carelessness will delay the defeat of COVID-19 and delay the eventual end of the stay at home order.

People from Los Angeles County and San Diego County drove to the OC where beaches were open due to the increasing temperatures.

People also drove to Ventura county to try to cool off from the hot weather because beaches in Los Angeles County were closed off to the public.

There were 90,000 beachgoers at Newport Beach that weekend, despite medical expert recommendation to socially distance.

California governor Gavin Newsom declared a forced closure of beaches in Orange County because of the people who went to the beach the weekend on April 27, 2020.

The order was announced by Newsom on the day Orange County reported their largest daily tally of 145 new cases of COVID-19, according to data from OC Health.

Why go to the beach during a virus outbreak and risk exposure? At this point, there is a wealth of knowledge that the virus can show no symptoms in some people.

Staying healthy should be your priority and being around thousands of people at the beach is not an effective way of avoiding infection.

Any beachgoer can be sick with COVID-19 and not know because they aren’t showing symptoms.

Testing numbers in the county are also very low and open access to testing, like that in LA County, has not been available in Orange County.

Individual doctors decide who should get tested and most are focusing on the essential workers and seriously-ill patients.

It is sickening (pun intended) to see so many clueless people caring more about their outing schedule than the health of the community they are a part of.

These people aren’t the only ones who are cooped up in their house all day, every day.

Seeing the photos of the amount people at the beach this weekend is upsetting. What are they doing at a heavily populated beach, sunbathing next to others?

Even if some of them were “socially distancing,” how can 90,000 people passing each other not inadvertently spread the virus?

The amount of maskless people should be a sign of how seriously these people were taking the social distancing requirements.

Many of the beach parking lots were closed but people didn’t care and willfully received parking violations.

What is that other than an ignorant flaunting of privilege? Poor and working class people can’t tank a parking ticket for a day at the beach.

To quote Governor Newsom, “This virus doesn’t go home because it’s a beautiful, sunny day along our coast.”

Huntington Beach decided to pursue any and all legal actions necessary to challenge Newsom’s beach closure directive.

Nearly 2000 people have died from the virus in California and people are upset they cannot go to the beach.

Protests are happening in Huntington Beach after Newsom’s announcement.

Around two thousand to three thousand people protested the closure and didn’t wear face masks or practice social distancing during the protest.

There are proper ways to practice social distancing during the pandemic on the beach and the governor shouldn’t open the beaches until there are strict rules for people to follow.

Newsom has mentioned that the order to close all beaches is temporary but that the only thing that will set back the process of reopening California is people who aren’t practicing social distancing.