Photo provided by Google.
California’s COVID-19 cases have been skyrocketing since November, which has prompted a second lockdown in California. On December 3rd the California Department of Public Health noted that the Bay Area has a critical shortage of ICU beds with many regions proclaiming that they have less than 15% ICU availability. This resulted in another stay at home order with many businesses shutting down once again. These include hair salons/barber shops, personal care services, museums, zoos, aquariums, movie theaters (excluding drive-ins), family entertainment centers, live audience sports, amusement parks, cardrooms, satellite wagering, and wineries, bars, breweries, and distilleries (with the exception of production, manufacturing, distribution, and retail sale off-site consumption.) Other sectors of businesses and places of worship have to abide by 100% masking and social distancing in order to stay open. The government’s response to the lockdown, giving people $600 stimulus checks, hase received a lot of criticism as many people say that this will do little to nothing to help them.
As of the 4th of January, there were 2.43 million COVID-19 cases in California. The state’s COVID cases account for about 11.7 percent of the COVID cases in the United States.
We interviewed a fellow Husky, Tanav Mylavaram about what he thought about the regional stay at home order. When asked if the stay at home order was flawed, Tanav responded with “I think the stay-at-home order is flawed because people aren’t viewing it as mandatory. COVID keeps spreading at rapid rates because people will not stay home. I can understand going out for necessities such as grocery shopping, the gas station, and work. However, there are still so many places that are open that people can go to and continue to because I believe they think ‘well if this is open, then the state obviously thinks they are an essential business.’” Tanav also thinks that people are not taking this stay at home order seriously. In his point of view, the issue is people are still in this mindset that COVID will only affect young children, elderly and people who are immunocompromised. “I feel like people have the mindset of ‘well if I haven’t gotten it [COVID] yet, I probably wont get it at all.’” However, he does think that the government is doing a good job. “I think the CA Government is doing their best with what they’ve got. Do I think they should close things down more? Yes, I do. Do I understand that these businesses need an income, though? Yes I do. They are trying to keep the economy going as well as keep people safe. However, when do we get to decide that businesses’ struggles are less important than people’s lives? I think that the people deserve more help than what they are getting, maybe a pause on rent or something.” Like California, many other states are trying to follow the same steps but some are opening schools early. Tanav makes it clear that he is no politician and that most politicians know better than the rest of us and are trying their best.
As of January 25th, the regional stay at home order ended. This prompted the question of, “Was there even any point?” and “Have cases improved or worsened?”. Looking at the statistics, we can see that California COVID cases have been decreasing weekly.
It is currently Amal Afsal’s senior year at Washington High School. He was born and raised in Fremont, California. For his third and final year at the Hatchet, he will be the news editor. Amal enjoys writing about a variety of topics at the Hatchet, but prefers News and Opinions articles. In his free time, Amal enjoys playing video games while also occasionally watching television and browsing Reddit. He enjoys playing Badminton at WHS’s open gym and is employed by the restaurant, iniBurger. Amal wants to go to community college and transfer to a university within a couple of years.