Governor asks California county to reimpose stay-at-home

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that he wants an agricultural Southern California county to reimpose stay-home orders amid a surge in positive coronavirus tests there and through much of the state.

Imperial County, with a population of 175,000 people on the state’s border with Mexico, has been the slowest in the state to reopen amid continued high positivity rates, which have averaged 23% in the last week, compared with 5.7% statewide.

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The Imperial Valley, which provides many of the vegetables in U.S. supermarkets in the winter, lies across the border from Mexicali, a sprawling industrial city of 1 million people that has enormous influence on its economy and culture.

Newsom also said that statewide there were small increases in the percentages of people hospitalized and in ICUs, he said.

San Francisco announced it was “temporarily delaying” plans to reopen barber shops, tattoo parlors, outdoor bars and nail salons on Monday.

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Mayor London Breed noted the city reported 103 additional cases overnight, unusual for San Francisco, and she said public health experts will evaluate data to determine if it’s safe to move ahead.

“I know people are anxious to reopen -- I am too. But we can’t jeopardize the progress we’ve made,” she wrote on social media.