Coronavirus: Bay Area residents adjust to newest shelter-in-place recreation restrictions

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- The new, extended shelter-in-place order for much of the Bay Area went into effect at midnight Wednesday morning.

Now people around the Bay are trying to adjust.

Dog parks, playgrounds, picnic areas, tennis courts and basketball courts are just some of the places now closed to the public.

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These additional restrictions apply for the duration of the stay-at-home orders, which have been extended to May 3 in six Bay Area counties.

At Mosswood Dog Run park in Oakland, Rodney Hewitt was shooting hoops along with others on the basketball court.

He says playing basketball is his way of exercising everyday.

"It's very important for me to workout, " Hewitt said. "It helps my mind, spiritually, physically. You know this is going to be tough on me as a basketball player. If they shut down the courts I'll have to just go out dribble I guess and run without shooting. But I have to stay in shape."

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When it comes to a sport that requires you to share a ball, you can only play with members of your household.

Hewitt said it's already hard enough to not play with his friends.

"Not be in contact with people that you know, and people that you played with that type of thing, it's really tough on your mindset," Hewitt said.

Daniel Lichtenberg said he took his dog Salty to the dog park everyday.

"We've been going but also kind of like knowing that we were way too close to people at the dog park so I think it's good just to be forced not to go," Lichtenberg said.

He said his brother lives in Milan, Italy and everything there is shutdown.

"My brother lives in Italy and he's been on locked for two months and they can't do anything. There's just no way we're going to stop the spread of this disease without real social distancing," Lichtenberg said.

Heather Williamson, from Lathrop, met her friend Ben and his younger daughter at the park where they were playing with bubbles, six feet apart.

She said parks help clear the mind.

"I need trees, I need grass, I need to see that life still exists," Williamson said.

She also feels like it's challenging for people not to go to public places after you've been home all day but it's what needs to happen.

"Well it's the smartest thing to do is to close down, shutdown. Distancing is the only thing that's going to stop COVID," Williamson said.