Governor Gavin Newsom closes Orange County beaches

Updated: December 14, 2024 - 1:44pm

<p>California won't shut down all the beaches in the state, just local ones in Orange County.</p><p>Gov. Gavin Newsom said starting Friday he was ordering a “hard close” of Orange County beaches after Newport Beach and Huntington Beach drew tens of thousands of visitors during a heat wave last weekend.</p><p>“Same reason we are not reopening arenas with tens of thousands of people — we don’t want to have beaches with tens of thousands of people either,” Newsom said at his daily press briefing.</p><p>He said that Orange County was on the state's “list of health concerns” because it has more coronavirus cases and hospitalizations than many other areas.</p><p>Reports circulated earlier that the shutdown might apply to beaches and state parks across California, but Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that was never the case.</p>