Thousands of people descended on beaches in California over the weekend despite stay-at-home orders by authorities due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

People flocked to Newport and Huntington Beaches as temperatures reached around 32 degrees.

And people decided to ignore Governor Gavin Newsom's advice when he specifically told people to ‘practice social distancing’ to help ‘save lives’ during the heatwave.

California was one of the first states in the US to bring in lockdown measures with over 1,600 coronavirus deaths and over 42,000 confirmed cases.

The Associated Press reported that around 40,000 people packed onto Newport Beach on Friday.

Lovers Point Park and Beach were closed off by police after too many people turned up, ignoring social distancing measures.