Waves of people flock to beaches in southern California despite coronavirus concerns
- Orange and Ventura counties have kept their beaches open amid the statewide stay-at-home order
- San Diego county reopened its beaches as of Monday morning to activities like surfing, swimming and single-person paddling
As the season’s first heatwave descended on southern California over the weekend, the area’s beaches remained eerily deserted.
One exception, however, was Newport Beach in Orange county, where a massive beach party appeared to be under way, with families crowding the boardwalk and sand in numbers not usually seen outside public holidays.
California Governor Gavin Newsom addressed the beach crowds over the weekend during his daily press conference on Monday.
“You didn’t see those images on [Los Angeles] beaches and San Diego beaches and northern California beaches … because we had strong guidelines,” he said. “The images down in Orange county and Ventura county, on our beaches, those images are an example of what not to do.”
Los Angeles county has shut down all of its 20 beaches along 25 miles of coastline, but it has been a point of pride for nearby Orange and Ventura counties to have kept their beaches open. With no other local beaches open, people flocked to those seafront towns in the thousands.
