California Governor Announces State Reopening Plan to Start Friday
Written by SOURCE on May 5, 2020
On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that, as part of a phased exit from social distancing-enacted policies, some of the state’s retail shops can start opening back up by this Friday.
Included in this plan are compliant clothing stores, bookstores, music/toy stores, sporting goods stores, and florists, all of whom can offer curbside pickup services on that day. Beaches in cities such as Laguna Beach and San Clemente have been given permission for limited openings.
Newsom announced that further reopening guidelines low-risk businesses need to meet for reopening will be released on Thursday. Though businesses that are not set to be included at this time are offices, malls, and restaurants.
“Millions of Californians answered the call to stay home and thanks to them, we are in a position to begin moving into our next stage of modifying our stay-at-home order,” Newsom said, according to CNN. “But make no mistake — this virus isn’t gone. It’s still dangerous and poses a significant public health risk.”
All of California’s reopenings will be monitored and surveilled, with Newsom adding that some counties can open up more than others if health officials and supervisors give the go-ahead. Counties that would be allowed to relax social distancing requirements would have to be ones deemed to be adequately prepared from a testing/tracing standpoint, and also would have to have the ability to protect those most vulnerable, such as incarcerated people, homeless people, and the elderly.
“We will allow additional movement through phase two, and that includes the prospect of restaurants with modifications opening, hospitality more broadly opening, again, with modification,” Newsom said, according to CNBC.
A third phase would involve opening up businesses, such as: hair/nail salons, movie theaters, and events with live audiences. California isn’t yet at that point.
California is one of several states putting in place a plan to reopen businesses, though health professionals have stressed that pulling back on social distancing can have disastrous consequences (see: you don’t want to have to go back to square one).
As part of the state’s soon-to-be-implemented plan, Newsom announced that a “tracing army” would track cases throughout California. As described by CNN, this would be a training program, run by UCLA and the University of California San Francisco, that would “teach people how to trace and track the disease through a virtual academy.”
The state has already identified 3,000 recruits who will go through 20 hours of training (12 online and eight in person) starting on Wednesday. The goal is to eventually reach 20,000 tracers.
