The San Francisco Bay Area went two consecutive days without recording a single death from coronavirus on Sunday and Monday — the first time that has happened since March.
“Health officials in the nine Bay Area counties recorded no new deaths due to the coronavirus on Sunday or Monday, as the area’s death toll remained at 390,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported, noting that the last day without a single death from the disease had been March 21.
The news came as California Gov. Gavin Newsom began easing some of the criteria for counties to reopen their economies.
53 of the state’s 58 counties would qualify for a “variance” from the state’s rules, Newsom said Monday, according to the Chronicle.
Some local governments had complained that the criteria were too stringent, and a few businesses began opening in defiance of the rules — an increasing phenomenon in other parts of the country.
In early May, for example, one restaurant opened in Orange County in open defiance of state and local restrictions — and law enforcement did not intervene. There were similar cases elsewhere.
Overall, the Los Angeles Times notes, the state has had more than 80,000 cases of COVID-19, and has suffered 3,200 deaths. But California has not been hit as hard as New York and other states, for reasons that are still not understood.
Some credit the state’s relatively early decision to order residents to stay at home. But warmer weather may also have played a role, along with the fact that California’s sprawling big cities are less dense than the East Coast hubs.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.