For a while there in late spring, it seemed as though California, with its bold first-in-the-nation decision on March 19 to order residents to shelter in place, had spared itself the worst of the coronavirus. “The California miracle,” some public health experts called it.
But, as mounting case numbers and dire hospitalization figures have starkly illustrated, talk of a miracle was premature, to say the least. On Wednesday, California’s official case count surpassed New York’s — a number driven in part by the state’s massive population but also by its steady and alarming increase in new cases. Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom shuttered the state back up, ordering bars, movie theaters, and indoor service at restaurants and wineries to shut down across the state. Testing is delayed again. Some hospitals are out of ICU beds. Schools in more than 30 of the state’s 58 counties will be online-only in the fall. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has repeatedly raised the possibility of a new stay-at-home order for the city’s 4 million residents if conditions don’t improve.
Now, many Californians, yearning for a return to normal life and feeling like it’s further and further away, are wondering: Now what?
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