KTLA

In downtown San Diego, more than 200 protesters rally against stay-at-home orders

Protesters rally in downtown San Diego against California's stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, on April 18, 2020. (ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images)

One month into a statewide stay-home order that has upended daily life as we know it, protesters took to the downtown streets Saturday and demanded that California reopen.

“I think at [this] point people have had enough and they want to get back to work again,” said retired Point Loma resident Darla Clark, noting many of her friends have lost their jobs. “This is definitely where the cure is going to be worse than the disease.”

The rally, which mirrored several others staged across the nation in the last week, ignored repeated calls from health experts and local public officials to keep the restrictions in place for potentially several weeks longer to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

The “Freedom Rally” drew at least 200 people — many carrying American flags and posters and wearing Trump 2020 hats. Most were not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. An unknown number of additional protesters chose to stay in their vehicles and drove by honking and waving U.S. flags from their windows.

Read the full story at LATimes.com.