California governor announces statewide stay-at-home order over rapid spread of COVID-19

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Thursday evening a statewide stay-at-home order for the most populous U.S. state in response to the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Newsom asked all nearly 40 million Californians to stay home unless it is absolutely necessary to head out.

"Those that work in critical sectors should go to work. Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and more will stay open," tweeted the governor.

"We need to meet this moment and flatten the curve together," he added.

The governor's order goes into effect immediately and is in place until further notice.

In a letter published Thursday to U.S. President Donald Trump, Newsom warned that 56 percent of Californians, or around 25.5 million people, will be infected with the virus over an eight-week period.

There are more than 1,000 positive cases and 19 deaths related to the novel coronavirus in California so far, according to a continuous Los Angeles Times survey of numbers released by local health agencies across the state.

The governor therefore requested an immediate deployment of the USNS Mercy, a U.S. Navy hospital ship, to the Port of Los Angeles through Sept. 1 to help decompress the state's health care delivery system in Los Angeles in response to COVID-19.

"Our state and health care delivery system are significantly impacted by the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases. In the last 24 hours, we had 126 new COVID-19 cases, a 21 percent increase," Newsom wrote.

"In some parts of our state, our case rate is doubling every four days. Moreover, we have community acquired transmission in 23 counties with an increase of 44 community acquired infections in 24 hours," he wrote, adding the "population density in the Los Angeles Region is similar to New York City, will be disproportionately impacted by the number of COVID-19 cases."

Los Angeles is California's most populous city and the second most populous city in the nation behind New York.

Also on Thursday, Newsom sent another letter to the leaders of Congress calling for over 1 billion U.S. dollars in initial federal funding to support the state's coordinated COVID-19 response and pandemic surge planning and implementation.