Newsom Lays Out Plan To Slowly Reopen Economy

Source: Sacramento Business Journal, Felicia Alvarez
Photo: California is beginning to move from its “surge” phase for hospitals and into a “suppression” phase for the coronavirus. (JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES)

California is beginning to chart its path forward to reopening the state’s economy after nearly four weeks of shelter-in-place orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, at a news conference Tuesday, laid out six indicators that the state will be looking for, before stay-at-home orders and other interventions will be slowly removed.

The six indicators are:

The ability to monitor through testing, contact tracing, isolating and supporting those who are positive or exposed.

The ability to prevent infection in people who are at risk for more severe COVID-19.

The ability of the hospital and health systems to handle surges.

The ability to develop therapeutics to meet the demand.

The ability for businesses, schools and child care facilities to support physical distancing.

The ability to determine when to reinstitute measures, such as the stay-at-home orders, if necessary.

Shelter-in-place orders will remain in effect for what could be weeks, until the state observes a flattening or reduction in hospitalizations and ICU bed occupations by COVID-19 patients.

On Tuesday, California saw a 3.6% decrease in hospitalizations, and a 0.1% drop in intensive care bed occupancy. The state also saw its largest single-day jump in deaths, with 71 individuals who died from the virus.

As California waits for hospitalizations to decline, Newsom said the state will build up its infrastructure to address the six indicators he laid out. He declined to provide a specific timeline for when the economy could be reopened.

Newsom emphasized that the state intends to “modify” stay-at-home orders, rather than allowing residents back onto the streets all at once, which he said has the potential to cause another surge in coronavirus cases.

“There’s no light switch here. It’s more like a dimmer,” Newsom said.

When residents do return to work and the outside world, however, it’ll be a different world.

Restaurants may receive orders to reduce the number of tables where they allow seating, to provide disposable menus or that waitstaff wear gloves and masks.

Workplaces may have to redraw floor plans to ensure social distancing, and some businesses may receive guidance to take the temperatures of their customers or employees before they enter.

“Face coverings will likely be common in public,” said Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health.

Public gatherings over the summer are also “unlikely,” Newsom said.

“The prospect of mass gatherings is negligible at best until we get to herd immunity and until we get to a vaccine,” the governor said.

While students may potentially return to school in the fall, classrooms may see students staggered into different cohorts that meet in the morning and afternoon, or other interventions to physically distance students.

Schools, parks and public places will require “massive deep cleaning,” Newsom said.

He and Angell said stay-at-home orders are not sustainable for the state, between impacts on the economy, poverty rates and health care in state. Modifying stay-at-home orders is intended for a bridge phase until more widespread testing and a vaccine are developed.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2020/04/14/newsom-lays-out-plan-to-slowly-reopen-economy