Today, Saturday March 28th, Governor Gavin Newsom visited the Bloom Energy ventilator refurbishing site in Sunnyvale with San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. The Governor and the Mayor toured the site and met with company leadership before jointly hosting a press conference at approximately 1PM.
During the press conference, Governor Newsom highlighted the efforts of Bloom Energy but also stated that many manufacturers, big and small, are working to help address this crisis. Newsom says some 350 manufacturers have told him they want to convert their facilities to start manufacturing needed equipment, from gowns to hand sanitizer.
Newsom also announced that yesterday intensive care unit (ICU) numbers went up 105 percent overnight in the state. Hospitalization went up 38.6 percent, not including almost 4,000 “persons of interest” in hospitals who have been tested for COVID-19 and results have yet to come back. Given these figures, the Governor implored Californians to stay home to help slow the spread of the virus. He said, “I promise people this: we will not get back to normalcy as soon as we like if we don’t practice physical distancing.”
During the Q&A portion of the press conference, Gov. Newsom was asked about the State Budget. He reinforced the guidance issued by the Department of Finance earlier this week. A copy of the Budget Letter can be found here.
Yesterday, March 27th, Newsom issued an executive order (EO) to empower the Judicial Council and the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court to take necessary action to be able to conduct business and continue to operate while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. A copy of the full news release can be found here. A copy of the EO can be found here.
As of March 27th, 2 PM PST, there are a total of 4,643 positive cases and 101 deaths in California (including one non-California resident). More information can be found here.