The coronavirus continued to spread across California, with multiple cases in communities including Long Beach, Sacramento and San Diego, and a second death, in Silicon Valley.
The growing number cases shows the the virus is spreading deeper into communities, and officials expect the numbers to rise well beyond 140 as more testing is done in the coming days.
County health officials are trying to curtail public events. Santa Clara County issued a rare legal order banning mass gatherings of 1,000 or more people, effective Wednesday through the rest of March.
Santa Clara County, with 43 confirmed coronavirus cases and one death, has California’s largest number of confirmed infections. After declining an earlier recommendation to halt mass gatherings late last week, the San Jose Sharks said the hockey team would abide by the county’s new order at SAP Center in downtown San Jose, which is enforceable by the county sheriff and city police.
“We are clearly facing a historic public health challenge,” the Santa Clara County health officer, Dr. Sara Cody, said at a news conference Monday night. “The number and type of cases to date indicate that the risk of exposure to this virus in our community is increasing.”
Los Angeles reported its first case of community-spread coronavirus on Monday.
“We will continue to see more cases of COVID-19,” said L.A. County Public Health Department Director Barbara Ferrer. “We continue to urge everyone to do their part: Stay home if you are sick and keep your children home if they are sick; plan for the possibility of school and business closures.”
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