On June 28th, California Governor Newsom has mandated a closure on bars and nightlife establishments in seven counties, including Los Angeles County and Fresno County, effective June 30th. The order was given as Coronavirus cases has recently spiked with over 200,000 confirmed cases in California. In Riverside County, that’s 7.5% of the state’s cases, according to the CDC website, and this new change comes only after 3 weeks of having the bars opened again. 

In the other remaining counties like Riverside and Santa Barbara County, the order comes only with a recommendation to close, but still urges people to take action to lower the spread of Coronavirus. Urgency is the key word here as close to 99% of ICU beds in Riverside County are at full capacity with 28% of those ICU patients tested positive for Coronavirus. 

Recently, Dr. Cameron Kaiser, a public health officer in Riverside County, has stated that “People don’t social distance well after a couple drinks, and it’s one of the hardest environments to trace contacts in” and this is a major concern that the officials has taken notice. The officials with the Department of Environmental Health in Riverside County has enforced the closure and adding that the drinking establishment who don’t comply “may face additional action.” Data shown by the Riverside University Health System proves that Riverside County has the second highest number of Coronavirus cases with a confirmed 16,634 of positive cases and 340 number of deaths.  According to the CDC, as of June 29th there currently are 306 confirmed cases and 6 number of deaths.