UPDATED: Gov. Newsom spares most beaches from closure but Monterey beaches and parks will partially close May 1.

After people swarmed beaches when the sun came out in Southern California last weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom was expected shut down all beaches in the state beginning Friday, May 1, in an attempt to further stop the spread of Covid-19.

When his official announcement came just after noon on Thursday, most of the state's coastal areas—including Monterey County—could breath a sigh of relief: Newsom decided to enact a "hard close" of Orange County beaches only, the region that exhibited the most egregious flaunting of his stay-at-home order last weekend.

Newsom called news photos of packed Orange County beaches "disturbing." Meanwhile he said the "vast majority" of beachgoers in other parts of the state were "doing all the right things" and keeping their distance. A decision was made to spare those areas and focus specifically on the OC.

"We need to address that in a more targeted way—the density, the volume of people in the Orange County area," he said.

It's possible Newsom was sending up a trial balloon earlier in the week, when on a statewide call with law enforcement, state officials told those on the call a ban on all beaches was coming May 1. A memo was sent by the California Police Chiefs Association to its members on Wednesday, advising police chiefs to expect the announcement Thursday: 

"After the well-publicized media coverage of overcrowded beaches this past weekend, in violation of Governor Newsom's Shelter in Place Order, the Governor will be announcing tomorrow that ALL beaches and all state parks in California will be closed, effective Friday, May 1," the memo reads.

"We wanted to give all of our members a heads up about this in order to provide time for you to plan for any situations you might expect as a result, knowing each community has its own dynamics."

After the memo was widely distributed on social media, cries from people arose protesting the unfairness of punishing the whole state for the transgressions of a few. 

The Police Chiefs memo came out just as the city of Monterey announced a partial closure of its beaches and parks beginning Friday. It comes with a hefty administrative fine of $1,000 per violation.

The Monterey order allows for "active uses" like walking, jogging, running and ocean activities like swimming and surfing, as long as people observe social distancing measures. Passive and group activities will not be permitted—so no sitting, sunbathing, picnicking, barbecues, camp fires, or group sports of any kind. No one is allowed to bring in chairs, umbrellas or canopies. To further discourage people from overloading the beach, the city is limiting parking in the Del Monte Beach neighborhood.

California State Parks also issued a statement reiterating that while many state parks and beaches remain open, the same rules apply—recreation only (things like walking, jogging and surfing are permitted, as long as people abide by the six-foot social distancing rule), and no beach umbrellas, chairs, coolers or grills. 

The state parks in Monterey County that are closed are Garrapata, Point Lobos, Pfeiffer Big Sur, Julia Pfeiffer and Andrew Molera. 

Last weekend the city of Pacific Grove shut down Lovers Point Beach, Park and parking lot, after large numbers of people showed up on Saturday, making social distancing too difficult, according to the Pacific Grove Police Department.

Sara Rubin contributed to this report.