San Francisco Goes on Lockdown – Residents Ordered to “Shelter in Place” For Three Weeks in Response to Coronavirus Panic

San Francisco ordered a near complete lockdown of Bay Area residents on Monday in response to the Coronavirus panic. 

6 counties in the Bay Area have announced a “shelter in place” order directing all residents to stay inside of their homes for three weeks.

Monday’s order from lawmakers in San Fran is the strictest in the nation so far.

Beginning midnight on Tuesday, residents may only leave their homes to shop for food/supplies, to access health care or to provide aide to family and friends in need.

Resident may go outside for exercise but must stay 6 feet away from people they don’t live with.

The homeless are exempt from the order.

Via the San Francisco Chronicle:

Six Bay Area counties announced a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday — the strictest measure of its kind in the country — directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region.

The directive begins at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. It is to stay in place until at least April 7. Three other Bay Area counties — Sonoma, Solano and Napa — were not immediately included.

The order falls just short of a full lockdown, which would forbid people from leaving their homes without explicit permission, and it wasn’t immediately clear how, or to what degree, it would be enforced. The order calls for the sheriff or chief of police to “ensure compliance.” In Italy and other places that have instituted lockdowns, travel outside the home has been restricted without permission and police have been ordering people back home if they don’t have a reason to be in public.

“The scientific evidence shows that at this stage of the (coronavirus) emergency, it is essential to slow virus transmission as much as possible to protect the most vulnerable and to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed,” the order states. “One proven way to slow the transmission is to limit interactions among people to the greatest extent practicable.”

President Trump on Monday gave a presser from the White House briefing room and outlined new Coronavirus guidelines for Americans, predicting the virus will be a threat through July or August.