Name: California needs to shut down again to contain coronavirus, Bay Area lawmaker warns
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California needs to shut down again to contain coronavirus, Bay Area lawmaker warns

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A Bay Area lawmaker is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to put most of California under a second shelter-in-place order, arguing that the state’s management of the coronavirus pandemic is spiraling out of control.State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, put forth a proposal Thursday that would require every county to keep residents at home again, except for essential trips, until the rate of positive tests over 14 days drops below 2% in both the county and its neighbors. As of Wednesday, the statewide positive test rate for the previous week was 7.6%.Newsom announced the state’s largest single-day increase Wednesday of new confirmed coronavirus cases, 12,807, and for the most total cases of any state, though on a per-capita basis it is still far from the worst hot spot in the country.“It’s clear that we have lost control of the coronavirus fight, and you don’t have to look very far to see it in the numbers,” Glazer said at a news conference Thursday. “This crisis is on the verge of spiraling out of control.”It is not immediately clear how many of California’s 58 counties would have to shut down again under Glazer’s plan, but it would probably be the vast majority. Nearly two dozen counties exceed the state’s of 8% for positive tests, although the spread of the virus remains low in some rural areas. Modoc County, for example, has yet to a single case.Glazer said the more incremental steps Newsom has taken over the past month, including requiring Californians to and closing some businesses such as , have not contained a surging caseload. He said the governor should shift strategies to try to eradicate the virus completely, rather than simply managing its spread.Coronavirus PandemicA former aide to Gov. Jerry Brown, Glazer was elected to the Legislature in 2015 from a district consisting largely of suburban cities in central and eastern Contra Costa County and southern Alameda County. He has been criticized in the past by liberal activists for being too business-oriented. But he said Thursday that the harsh economic effects of another stay-at-home order were necessary to get the coronavirus under control and avoid the that has defined the state’s response so far.“Public health and the economy are handcuffed together. We can’t have one without the other,” Glazer said. “We have to do this right, because that’s the only way to bring our economy back.”California was the on March 19, a move experts have credited with slowing the initial outbreak. But under growing political pressure as the economy folded, Newsom began and allowed many counties to .About Our NewsroomGlazer, who has been outspoken about concerns that the state was reopening too quickly, criticized Newsom on Thursday for ending his original shutdown before the state had contained the coronavirus. He said that to this day, California does not have adequate testing and contact tracing capacity to manage a safe resumption of public life.“When we did begin to open up, none of the major indicators were declining,” he said. “It was clear the only place to go was up, and that’s what happened.”Mark Ghaly, the state health and human services secretary, said in a statement that “we are confident that our approach — data driven, with a commitment to ongoing learning, adapting and adjusting — will guide us through the pandemic. From the outset we envisioned reopening the economy as a dimmer switch, where we toggle modifications and closures up and down to avoid large-scale surges. This is precisely what we have done.”In addition to a second shelter-in-place, Glazer called for ending the variance process that has allowed counties to reopen faster than the statewide pace, expanding meal delivery programs so seniors and people more vulnerable to the health effects of the coronavirus can stay home, and requiring a 14-day quarantine for anyone entering California from another state or country with a positive test rate above 2%.Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: Twitter:About Our Newsroom

A Bay Area lawmaker is calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to put most of California under a second shelter-in-place order, arguing that the state’s management of the coronavirus pandemic is spiraling out of control.State Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Orinda, put forth a proposal Thursday that would require every county to keep residents at home again, except for essential trips, until the rate of positive tests over 14 days drops below 2% in both the county and its neighbors. As of Wednesday, the statewide positive test rate for the previous week was 7.6%.Newsom announced the state’s largest single-day...

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Alexei Koseff

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California needs to shut down again to contain coronavirus, Bay Area lawmaker warns

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