Newport Beach to remain open despite thousands of people who packed sand during coronavirus lockdown

Swimmers and surfers wade in the water Sunday in Newport Beach, Calif.(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Tens of thousands of Californians flooded to the beach over the weekend, ignoring coronavirus social distancing guidelines, but the local government isn’t planning on sending them home.

The Newport Beach City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday to keep the beach open, rejecting a measure that would have shut down the shore for three weekends in May.

Instead, council members “advised” staff keep the coastline open for exercise and recreation, “with a greater police and lifeguard presence to more actively enforce social distancing directives,” the city said in a statement.

“The vast majority of the beach visitors this weekend were practicing social distancing, but many were not,” the council said.

Newport Beach’s announcement came a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom chided residents for ignoring CDC warnings for some fun in the sun.

“This virus doesn’t take the weekends off,” Newsom said Monday during his daily coronavirus briefing. “The only thing that will set us back is people stopping to practice physical distancing and appropriate social distancing. That’s the only thing that’s going to slow down our ability to reopen this economy.”

More than 45,000 people in California have tested positive for coronavirus so far. Of those, about 1,800 have died.