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Protesters gathered in at least 11 cities Friday noon in the U.S. state of California, urging to lift shelter-in-place restrictions against COVID-19 pandemic and reopen the state as quickly as possible, local media reported. More than 500 protesters converged on Huntington Beach, a city in Orange County located 60 km south of Los Angeles downtown. They carried banners that read "All Jobs are essential" and "Freedom: We the people."
The California authorities on Thursday ordered Orange County to close all beaches, many of whom remained open despite the state's mandatory issued weeks before.
Such protests occurred in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento and other cities almost at the same time as California Governor Gavin Newsom's daily noon briefing on novel coronavirus.
The campaign was organized by the local "Reopen California" Facebook groups which have thousands of members.
On the organizers' official website, all people taking part in the protests are required to maintain CDC guidelines for prevention, including keeping social distancing from non-family members, but they could make decision by themselves to wear masks or cloth face coverings or not.
However, photos posted online showed while some protesters wore face coverings, most neither wore marks nor followed social distancing guidelines of six feet of separation.
Local police monitored the protests but did not arrest any attendee.
Newsom, at his Friday news conference, said he understood the concerns of protesters but urged residents in California to continue to obey the stay-at-home order and emphasized that some easing of the rules was days away.
He reiterated that he felt the pressure to reopen the state, but only scientific data could decide the schedule.
"Politics will not drive our decision making. Protests will not drive our decision making. Political pressure will not drive our decision making," said Newsom. "The science, data and public health will drive our decision making."
