Parts of California’s economy, including some retail and hospitality businesses, may reopen for limited operations starting later this week as the state moves to the next stage of managing the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.
Lower-risk businesses within the retail, hospitality and restaurant sectors — like clothing, florists, bookstores and sporting good stores — may reopen for curbside pickup as early as the end of this week, Newsom said. Restaurants for dine-in service, shopping malls and offices will remain closed.
“This is a very positive sign and it’s happening only for one reason — the data says it can happen,” Newsom said.
As of Monday, the state is conducting about 30,000 tests a day and has more than 10,000 ventilators that are currently not in use.
Still, Newsom cautioned that the modifications to his statewide shelter-in-place order could be reversed if the numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospitals and intensive-care unit beds begin to grow again, Newsom said.
“It has to be done in a very thoughtful and judicious way,” he said. “We just want folks to know we need to toggle back and forth here on the basis of what’s happening in these communities in real time.”
Detailed guidance for businesses that will be permitted to reopen will be released Thursday, including new sanitation and social distancing requirements.
“We want to make sure that both the workers and the customers are safe in these settings, which means that there will be modifications to ensure physical distancing and making sure that the unique circumstances of those workplaces will be addressed,” said Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health
But even as the state begins to loosen restrictions, local jurisdictions may retain stricter guidelines that prevent any businesses from reopening. The Bay Area, for example, said last week that most of its prior mandates will apply through the month of May.
“Those that have stricter guidelines, we are not preempting their guidelines. We’ll still allow them to move forward,” Newsom said.
California to begin reopening at end of this week, Newsom says