What would California reopen first from coronavirus lockdown? Here’s what we know
Some California cities are calling on the state to reopen certain businesses from COVID-19 lockdown, media outlets reported.
Mayors of nine cities in Stanislaus County sent Gov. Gavin Newsom a letter urging him to “pursue an aggressive strategy for reopening our county for business. One size does not fit all. A reopening process that may fit, and make sense, for the Los Angeles and our neighboring Bay Area regions does not work for our county,” The Modesto Bee reported.
The cities said “houses of worship, barber shops, salons, dog groomers, restaurants (with seating limitations) and golf courses” should reopen first with continued practicing of social distancing, as well as city parks with limited use.
Other California counties have sent letters to Newsom asking him to reopen the state.
The Placerville City Council voted on April 14 to send a letter, calling on Newsom to lift the stay-at-home order, The Sacramento Bee reported. “Right now, it’s just a big open question mark,” Placerville Vice Mayor Dennis Thomas said, according to The Bee. “And I’m getting really frustrated at how these businesses are being disadvantaged.”
Mayors in San Luis Obispo County, two county supervisors, and Republican Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham also wrote a letter asking Newsom to lift the lockdown.
Riverside County and Ventura County have begun to partially reopen. Riverside County is reopening public and private golf courses, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Ventura County is allowing people to gather in groups up to five and reopening parks and golf courses, NBC Los Angeles reported.
What guidance is California following?
President Donald Trump issued guidelines for governors on how to re-open their states earlier this month. Large venues including restaurants, movie theaters, places of worship, and sporting venues can open during “phase one” once certain criteria are met, including “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period” and a downward trajectory of COVID-19 cases over two weeks, according to the guidelines.
The guidance also allows gyms to open during “phase one” if people practice physical distancing and spaces are sanitized thoroughly.
Newsom issued a stay-at-home order on March 19, The Sacramento Bee reported, and set out his own guidelines to help decide when to reopen the state on April 14.
The six requirements include: monitoring and tracking cases, increasing capacity at hospitals, preventing infection for “high-risk people,” ensuring distancing and therapeutics at businesses, schools and child care facilities, and developing guidelines for another stay-at-home order if virus cases increase again, the Bee reported.
“I wish I could prescribe a specific date to say, well, we can turn up the light switch and go back to normalcy,” Newsom said Wednesday, according to The Los Angeles Times. “We have tried to make it crystal clear that there is no light switch. And there is no date in terms of our capacity to provide the kind of clarity that I know so many of you demand and deserve.”
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 12:54 PM with the headline "What would California reopen first from coronavirus lockdown? Here’s what we know."