California orders indoor businesses to close, limits on churches, gyms in some counties

July 13 (UPI) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday ordered multiple business sectors to close down once again amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state.

Newsom ordered dine-in restaurants, bars, movie theaters, zoos, museums and some other businesses to close throughout the state which reported 8,358 new cases on Monday.

"We've made this point on multiple occasions and that is we're moving back into modification mode of our original stay-at-home order," Newsom said during a press conference on Monday.

He also called for counties that have remained on the state's monitoring list for three days to also shut down additional activities.

Under the order some of California's most populous areas including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernadino and Ventura counties, will be required to shut down fitness centers, worship services, protests, offices for nonessential sectors, malls, personal care services, hair salons and barbershops.

"We're seeing an increase in the spread of the virus, so that's why it's incumbent upon all of us to recognize soberly that COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon until there is a vaccine or an effective therapy," Newsom said.

California has risen to second in the nation in positive cases with a total of 329,162, the state also has the fifth-highest death toll in the United States with 7,040 deaths.

Also Monday, the Los Angeles and San Diego unified districts, the two largest in the state, announced that the new school year would begin with online-only instruction as the districts construct a plan for a return to in-person instruction.

The districts cited "skyrocketing" infection rates in the state over the past few weeks as the basis for its decision.

"Our leaders owe it to all of those impacted by the COVID-19 closures to increase the pace of their work," the districts said. "No one should use the delay in the reopening of classrooms as a reason to relax."