The Santa Monica Pier welcomed outdoor visitors on Monday as Los Angeles County stepped onto the less restrictive orange row. The following day, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a nationwide reopening date for June 15, provided certain public health criteria are met. Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Hide caption
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Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The Santa Monica Pier welcomed outdoor visitors on Monday as Los Angeles County stepped onto the less restrictive orange row. The following day, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a nationwide reopening date for June 15, provided certain public health criteria are met.
Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
California could lift most of its statewide COVID-19 restrictions by June 15 if vaccine supplies are adequate and hospital admissions are low, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
Newsom said the state will lift its tiered system of risks and restraints known as the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, depending on these public health indicators, while maintaining its mask mandate and other “sensible health measures”.
“We see bright light at the end of the tunnel,” Newsom said at a press conference. “And on June 15th, if all things are the same and we continue this fine work, we will go beyond this blueprint and open this economy into normal business operations.”
He stressed that Californians should remain vigilant, especially given the relatively high number of cases of coronavirus variants that have been registered in the state. But he said California could soon be ready to take another step in its pandemic recovery, citing lower hospital stays and an expected increase in vaccine availability by the federal government.
According to Newsom, on the day of the announcement, the state crossed two major thresholds: It administered 20 million doses, including 4 million below its own Health Justice Metric.
He said officials are designing a system that will be able to deliver about 5.8 million doses per week, more than double the capacity of the roughly 2.5 million it received from the federal government last week. That number is expected to rise, with Newsom projecting more than 30 million doses to be administered by the end of the month.
The eligibility for the vaccine also increases. Individuals 50 and over qualified for the vaccine on April 1st and will be supported by the 16 and over from April 15th. The state has administered more than 7 million more doses than any other US state, Newsom said.
“With more than 20 million vaccines administered across the state, it is time to turn the page on our animal system and try to fully reopen the California economy,” said Newsom. “We can now start planning our life after the pandemic.”
The state will continue to conduct contact tracing and testing, and requirements for testing or vaccination reviews will remain in certain settings, he said in a message release. He warned that the tentative plan was dependent on vaccine supplies and hospital stays, adding that officials would monitor these metrics “with the option to re-check the target date if necessary,” although he did not provide numbers.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary for health and personal services, said officials were paying attention not only to the frequency of hospital stays, but also to who exactly is being admitted and how many patients have been vaccinated.
While the number of hospitalizations across the state is low – for example, with 20 patients currently hospitalized in San Francisco with COVID-19 – Ghaly said there is a race between vaccines and variants, and he urged the public on taking public health precautions such as wearing a mask and registering for the vaccine once it is eligible.
California’s Public Health Department The nationwide positivity rate for seven days was 1.6% on Monday. Starting with the draft for a safer economy latest update As of Tuesday, the majority of counties in the state are in the “significant” or “moderate” risk level, with two rated as “widespread” and two rated as “minimal”.
In one memo To outline the transition, public health officials said corporate sectors will be able to return to normal operations with “limited” public health restrictions.
Unless the test or vaccination status is checked for all participants, the conventions are limited to 5,000 people until October 1, and international congress participants are only admitted if they are fully vaccinated.
Schools and colleges should be taught full-time face-to-face in accordance with state and federal health guidelines, the memo added. Newsom said there was an expectation that students would return to face-to-face learning but stopped calling it a requirement.
Californians and visitors are subject to state and federal travel restrictions, which also apply eased slightly in recent days, although unnecessary travel continues to be discouraged.
The updated April 1 state travel advisory no longer includes a recommendation that Californians should not travel more than 120 miles from where they live, although it continues to discourage unnecessary travel outside of the state.
The announcement comes after the governor faces political pressure from a recall he deemed sacked last month Partisan and Republican. Newsom’s critics have struggled with its handling of the pandemic and business restrictions and are frustrated with the worsening housing and homelessness problems, as well as high taxes like CapRadio Reports.
It’s one of several such efforts filed since Newsom’s re-election in 2018, and it would be California’s first recall in nearly two decades. Organizers said they had collected enough signatures by mid-March to force a special election and that the county election officials would have until the end of the month to review it.
