SACRAMENTO, Calif. (NBC) – The nation’s most populous state, California, is now under a stay at home order until at least April 19th as the governor appeals to the federal government for help, citing frightening estimates for the next two months.
Governor Gavin Newsom says it’s a matter of time before tens of millions of people catch the virus. It is a sobering statistic, with every other person becoming ill.
“It’s time for all of us to recognize as individuals and as a community that we need to do more to meet this moment,” Newsom said.
This comes after warning that more than half of those who live in California could become infected with the coronavirus over eight weeks.
The action following this letter to the president, projecting 25.5 million people in the Golden State alone might contract the illness.
Newsom is requesting a billion dollars in federal funds to support the state’s medical response to COVID-19.
Los Angles Mayor Eric Garcetti said, “Today is a day that will be seared into the story and the streets of this city. It will be a moment when everything changed.”
There are ghostly scenes unfolding in New York, Boston and San Francisco.
In the nation’s second-most populated state, Texas, the governor there ordered the closure of dine-in restaurants, bars, and gyms, joining a growing list of states and cities restricting groups larger than 10 people.
Maryland’s governor issuing a blunt warning to those not taking the crisis seriously: “You are endangering the lives of your fellow Marylanders.”
32-year-old Matt Schulte has had the virus for more than a week. He said, “I’m, like, short of breath so sometimes I have to… Heaviness… it just feels like my lungs have fluid in them.”
At the end of a long week which millions of Americans have spent at home, Friday morning is a reminder, in this crisis, we are all separated. Together.
Amid that dramatic warning from the California governor that millions and millions more
could get sick in this state, he is also asking the president for the USNS Mercy, a large floating hospital, be docked at the Port of Los Angeles. It’s another indication of how bad the crisis is expected to become.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.