Cardiff State Beach remains closed during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Encinitas, California, U.S. April 30, 2020.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he plans to close state and local beaches in Orange County, calling the images of huge crowds that occupied the beaches over the weekend "disturbing."

"Orange County has been on our list of health concern and they've done a wonderful job down there, I just think we can tighten that up a little bit. So we're going to have a temporary pause down there," Newsom said at a press conference on Thursday.

Newsom said beaches in the southern part of California, including those in Orange, Los Angeles, and San Diego counties, have raised alarm bells, including images of people who were congregating there and not following physical distancing guidelines. He said the state wants to work closely with local officials, and if they can create better guidelines, the beaches can "reopen very very quickly."

"My job as governor is to keep you safe, and when our health folks tell me they can't promise that if we promote another weekend like we had then I have to make this adjustment," Newsom said.

An additional 95 people died from Covid-19 on Wednesday, he said. The state saw a 5.2% increase in confirmed cases since yesterday for a total of 48,917.

"Why undo all the great progress? Let's move this state forward together," Newsom said.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes later pushed back against Newsom's order, saying that it unfairly singled out Orange County beaches. Barnes said the order "is wrong and fails to recognize the sacrifice made by our 3 million residents," according to a tweeted statement on Thursday.

https://twitter.com/OCSheriffBarnes/status/1256024329210351616

Previous reports before Newsom's order indicated he planned to close all of the state's beaches, which drew widespread criticism from some state officials. When asked what changed his mind on closing all state beaches, Newsom said that they "never did and this is exactly the conversations we were having."