California Governor Orders Stay-At-Home For Entire State

Gov. Gavin Newsom did not provide a deadline for the end of the statewide order amid the coronavirus pandemic.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday issued an order for all residents of the state, where many of the world’s most iconic tech companies are based, to stay at home to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The country's most populous state, California has roughly 40 million residents--though 23 million residents had already been placed under shelter-in-place orders this week in regions including the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County.

[Related: San Francisco Bay Area Shelter In Place Order Adds Channel Uncertainty]

Newsom did not provide a deadline for the end of the statewide order, which goes into effect Thursday evening.

"I don't expect it will be many, many months," he said during an address announcing the order--but added that the next eight weeks will be especially critical to "get that curve down" of new infections.

Earlier on Thursday, reports revealed that Newsom--in a letter to President Donald Trump--had estimated that 25.5 million Californians were likely to get the coronavirus during the next eight weeks.

The order is necessary so that the state's health care facilities are not overwhelmed with infected patients, Newsom said in his address Thursday. The order will not impact individuals who need to go to "essential jobs,” he said.

Earlier this week, solution providers told CRN that the shelter in place order for the San Francisco Bay Area will severely hamper their ability to conduct business, particularly on the hardware side.

"If this goes on too long, will we have [customers] who say, ‘I can’t afford this anymore. We’ve been hit really hard'?” said Steve Neverve, president of Nevtec, a San Jose, Calif.-based MSP in Santa Clara County.

A shelter-in-place order issued this week in Monterey County provided an exemption for IT companies, however, said Luis Alvarez, president and CEO of Alvarez Technology Group, which is based in Salinas, Calif.

"We're considered to be along the lines of first responders," Alvarez told CRN. "So it's not going to impact us--but it will cause many of our clients who have been hesitating to set up work-from-home situations to actually have to do it now. Basically there's no option if they want to stay in business."

Newsom's order mentions 16 "critical infrastructure sectors"-- one of which is the information technology sector -- that "may continue their work because of the importance of these sectors to Californians' health and well-being."

California reportedly had 1,058 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday evening.