Gavin Newsom | AP Photo/Randall Benton Local leaders take coronavirus fight into own hands absent federal direction

SACRAMENTO — On Monday morning, Donald Trump tweeted: “Nothing is shut down.” On Monday evening, local officials in California’s Silicon Valley did just that.

In the heart of America’s technology industry and the epicenter of coronavirus’ rapid spread in California, the decision by Santa Clara County to ban large public gatherings under threat of legal penalties was the most dramatic instance yet of state or local authorities moving decisively to curb the burgeoning public health crisis.


And it put on display a growing truth of the escalating public health emergency: From Northern California to New Rochelle, N.Y., state and local officials in mostly blue states have been largely taking matters in their own hands, with outcomes that have varied widely. They’re acting, some say, amid an absence of federal leadership.

Republican-led states are acting as well. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called a state of emergency, urged universities to teach remotely and told fans to stay away from outdoor sporting events, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged an influx of money to shore up state health care and hospitals.

On the same day that Santa Clara County moved aggressively to limit public gatherings, Sacramento County took a divergent approach by abandoning isolation and quarantines on Monday, with health officials saying their goal has shifted from the no-longer-viable goal of containment to protecting the most vulnerable.

Sacramento County Director of Health Services Peter Beilenson said in an interview that county officials hewed to state guidance and formulated that response in conjunction with neighboring counties.

“This has been mostly a state and local effort. The federal government has been sort of behind the times,” Beilenson said, adding that “there clearly could have been testing kits available much more early than there were,” which means now “the entire country is” catching up.

Democratic governors have been in the unusual position of urging cooperation with a president they’ve spent their tenures battling and even suing. And early complaints from state and local officials about a faltering federal response that yielded too few test kits and too little guidance have now receded as some officials now say the federal government has met the urgency of the threat with steady assistance.

But it has still fallen most pressingly to governors, mayors, school authorities and county health officials to try and forestall the viruses’ spread. That has mostly been officials in blue states where the virus is concentrated, despite Trump’s Tuesday morning Twitter broadside at “the Do Nothing Democrats.”

One of California’s largest school districts had already shut its doors to students before Trump asserted nothing was closing. On Monday evening, Santa Clara County Health Officer Sarah Cody said that “because our emerging data tells us we have more extensive community spread than was apparent to us even five days ago, we must take more actions to slow the spread of disease and to protect the public.”

“We at the public health department have been carefully following the data,” she added. “This is a big decision to issue an order such as this.”

Newsom said Tuesday “the state is really point” in the effort to disseminate guidelines to local officials in California, with “almost hourly” contact with the federal government shaping that counsel. But he noted that local responses should vary given California’s size and the fact that "in each and every [school] district, each and every county, conditions are different."

New York officials moved Tuesday to seal off a region where a growing cluster of cases posed a heightened risk of transmitting the virus, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying the fast-changing situation merited “a special public health strategy for New Rochelle.” In Massachusetts, a blue state with a Republican executive, Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency and legislative leaders said they plan to allocate $15 million for containment efforts.

While some blue state governors have conspicuously avoided criticizing Trump, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker didn't hold back Tuesday. Pritzker assailed vague Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance about avoiding large crowds, complained about the U.S. not using tests that were released by the World Health Organization and cautioned that Trump is downplaying the seriousness of the virus.

“I am very frustrated with the federal government,” he said. “We have not received enough tests. We’ve been told for days and that the commercial labs will be coming on line. Just again today I was told they’d be coming on line in a matter of days and we haven't seen it.”

The Trump administration has been intent on showcasing its engagement. On Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence lauded a “whole of government approach” and said regular meetings with the health care industry had produced an agreement to waive testing co-pays — an act Newsom demanded a week earlier. Trump has advocated offering workers relief through measures like a payroll tax.

But National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease head Anthony Fauci acknowledged Monday that the most intensive responses would come from outside the White House. He wouldn’t criticize governors and mayors for enacting restrictions — such as canceling public events — that go above and beyond what the federal government is recommending.

“They’re using their own individual judgment and, to me, I think that would be prudent,” Fauci said at a press briefing Monday at the White House.

Trump has lashed out at Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, on Friday branding Inslee “a snake” with whom “we have a lot of problems.” Inslee has brushed that off, saying “I really don’t care too much what Donald Trump thinks of me” and urging federal authorities to empower private laboratories to assume a greater role in testing — in essence, to help states help themselves.

Washington has also pushed the federal government to fortify safety programs that would aid workers in the event of widespread economic disruption and offset losses in international trade. But the state is not waiting on Washington, D.C., launching changes that broaden access to employment benefits and give state workers more options to work remotely.

“The federal government doesn’t always move with the expediency that is needed,” said Casey Katims, the state’s director of federal and interstate affairs, “which is why it’s so important that state and local governments take steps now to provide immediate assistance to workers and businesses.”

Big cities up and down the West Coast are similarly stepping into the breach. San Francisco is allocating millions to limit spread among homeless people and provide temporary shelter to quarantined residents. San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is proposing a moratorium on evictions to protect residents who are missing pay. While Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti praised federal assistance in managing traffic through airports and ports, he said the nation’s second-largest city has had to look inward as it braces to endure a potential worst-case scenario.

“As this explodes, I'm not so confident the preparation has been strong enough to deal with it were it to exponentially increase,” Garcetti said. “So we're doing a lot of it on our own right now, stockpiling what we need to, developing tests on our own and talking to local laboratories.”

The situation remains extremely fluid. What works today may not be effective tomorrow, and local officials are better equipped to make decisions on the fly based on what they're seeing, said George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at UCSF.

“These are moments in time," he said. "If you call back tomorrow, Sacramento may have a different tune."

Sam Sutton, Stephanie Murray, Alexandra Glorioso, Dan Goldberg and Katy Murphy contributed to this report.