Stay Home Except for Essential Needs

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Unlike the California counties that provided a more extensive list of permitted activities, Governor Newsom initially focused solely on maintaining the “continuity of operations of federal critical infrastructure sectors.”

The California State Public Health Officer and Director of the California Department of Public Health is ordering all individuals living in the State of California to stay home or at their place of residence

A few hours later, the State of California updated their California Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response website to add more exceptions to their “stay home” order. Individuals may now leave their home to maintain continuity of operations of

  • critical government services
  • schools
  • childcare, and
  • construction, including housing construction.

So, we now have a legal order whose terms have been modified by a website.

The other significant change affects Tesla, which will be temporarily suspending production at its factory in Fremont. Under the Alameda County Public Health Department Order, the county did not consider Tesla to be an Essential Business. However, under Governor Newsom’s Order, Tesla should be able to continue operations because vehicle manufacturing, which is part of the Critical Manufacturing Sector, was identified as one of the critical infrastructure sectors. This may be the source of confusion early on when the local, state and federal government had different views on which businesses should remain open.