Laurel Rosenhall, CalMatters

Following a sunny weekend when Californians flocked to beaches and hiking trails despite a government order to stay home, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week a “soft closure” of state parks to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

While not completely blocking access to natural open spaces, the governor’s action immediately closes parking lots at many state parks and beaches, in an effort to drastically reduce the number of visitors.

"We can’t see what we saw over the weekend happen again," he said, adding that rangers will step up enforcement to keep people six feet away from each other.

On an individual level, national parks have also been instituting closures. On Wednesday, federal officials closed Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks to all park visitors until further notice.

Highway 180 remains open for pass-through traffic to access Giant Sequoia National Monument and private property. All other roads and parking facilities are temporarily closed.

The closures came after park officials spoke with the Tulare County Department of Public Health.

Sequoia and Kings join a growing list of parks closing despite an announcement last week by Interior Secretary David Bernhardt that they would remain open with free entrance. Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Yosemite National Park in California and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee have also closed.

Newsom also delivered more sober news about how the pandemic is affecting Californians: He said unemployment claims in the state have skyrocketed over the last week —to a new daily average of 106,000, from what had been an average of 2,500.

And he said the state is anticipating a need for far more hospital beds than originally forecast to care for Californians who become sick with COVID-19.

California needs 50,000 hospital beds to cope with the epidemic, Newsom said — up from the 20,000 hospital beds he projected last week.

The hospital system will provide 30,000 of those beds in existing facilities — such as outbuildings on hospital campuses and tents that can be set up in parking lots, according to the governor. Another 20,000 beds will need to come from outside the hospital system.

A naval hospital ship, the USNS Mercy, is on its way to the port of Los Angeles. And two field hospitals of the eight that the federal government has promised also arrived in the state: One will be erected at the Santa Clara Convention Center and the other at fairgrounds in Riverside. It's possible another will be set up at the Fresno fairgrounds.

All told, the eight field hospitals should contribute 2,000 beds to the state’s total, Newsom said.

He linked the decision to close parks with the expected increasing demand for hospital beds, saying Californians have the power to increase or decrease the number of people who become sick with COVID-19, depending on whether they keep the distance necessary to slow the spread of disease.

“Let us all step up our game and recognize our obligation not just to ourselves but to each other,” Newsom said. “That 50,000-bed number that I just gave you assumes that we’re doing that. We have numbers that are substantially higher if we don’t.”

The announcement came as trails and beaches in the Bay Area and Southern California experienced huge crowds over the weekend and as local officials began their own efforts to close them down.

Though the statewide order to stay home allows people to go out for fresh air or exercise, as well as for essential trips to get food or medicine or go to work, the throngs that congregated at popular outdoor destinations prompted officials to clamp down.

Newsom lauded local officials for taking steps to close parks but said more needs to be done. Park rangers will break up groups with verbal warnings, the governor said, adding that they also have the power to issue citations.

“When you’re out there and you can’t even find parking at a beach, it suggests you’re not going to practice social distancing,” Newsom said.

He told Californians he is closing parking lots at state parks “to help you help yourself.”

Newsom’s stay-at-home order allows law enforcement to charge people with misdemeanors or issue fines of up to $1,000 for violations. But several police departments CalMatters spoke with said they were not taking that approach — yet.