California lockdown lifted once again
Ventura County has recently been lifted from the stay at home lockdown order due to the ICU capacity reaching its needs and more people receiving the vaccine.
February 25, 2021
On January 25, 2021, Governor Newsom decided to lift the stay at home lockdown order due to California’s improving COVID-19 conditions, allowing more businesses to reopen again.
Governor Newsom announced the previous stay at home order Dec. 3, but Newsom has lifted the lockdown for everyone in California.
For the lockdown Newsom had split California into different regions, including Northern California, the Bay Area, Greater Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California, according to Newsweek.
The stay out home order would only be lifted once the ICU capacity in each region is at least 15%.
During the lockdown, most businesses had to shut down again, including gyms, indoor and outdoor dining, and other businesses such as hair and nail salons. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 case numbers have begun to decrease, as the vaccine was distributed throughout the state.
The stay at home lockdown order was then lifted because California’s hospitalization rate was down nearly 20%.
Now, since the stay at home lockdown has been lifted, more businesses are opening up again. In Ventura County, restaurants are only open to outdoors or for takeout, gyms are only open outdoors, places of worship are open with max 25% capacity, and some schools have opened with modifications.
During an interview with NPR in late January, Secretary of State Health and Human Services agency, Dr. Mark Ghaly said, “California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for.”
In Downtown Ventura, the restaurants on Main Street had to be shut down for outdoor dining, which limited takeout options only, when the lockdown started. Now that the lockdown has been lifted, the restaurants are open to outdoor dining once again.
During an interview with California Globe in mid February, Dr. Aragon said, “Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.”
