Newsom unveils new requirements for speeding up next wave of reopenings

 Gov. Gavin Newsom revealed more requirements for counties seeking to speed up the process toward reopening, with testing, new cases and death rates being among highest bars to clear.

The guidance, which will be posted on the state’s Department of Public Health website in the coming days, was revealed in broad strokes during Newsom’s Thursday afternoon press briefing. Newsom said that the chances that some counties could meet these new guidelines and could see restaurants reopen in the next week was “very high” in certain parts of the state.

Those areas will likely be in more rural parts of California, where deaths and infection rates have remained low or nonexistent, leading some to spurn the governor’s stay at home orders.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Services, said that the regional variances in how COVID-19 has impacted parts of the state could lead to some areas being able to expand their openings, which could include restaurants for dine-in service and shopping malls.

First they would have to meet criteria like having infection rates of no more than one new case per 10,000 residents in a 14-day period and having no deaths during that same period. Testing capacity would have to rise to the level of having 1.5 tests per 1,000 residents and the region would have to have 15 contact tracers for every 100,000 residents.

The full list of guidelines will be posted on the state’s Department of Public Health website in the coming days.

“This is not etched in stone,” Newsom said. “We want to continue to work with people in industry to continue to modify these.” 
Friday will mark the first day that curbside pickup and delivery for some small retail businesses will be able to operate through city and county directives issued Wednesday.

Guidance on what those businesses would have to provide in the form of sanitizing stations for customers and personal protective equipment for employees will be updated on the state’s COVID-19 website Tuesday, the governor said.

Newsom also called for more federal funding to help the state weather its looming $54 billion budget deficit due to the COVID-19 economic fallout over the past few months.

He said that the state’s financial fortunes had flipped from a year ago when the state reported a $21 billion budget surplus. Just 90 days ago the state projected a $6 billion surplus.

However, the strain brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, including nearly $12 billion in unemployment payments since mid-March, have put the state in a tough position—but one that Newsom said the state would survive. He called on the federal government to help.

“One thing we don’t have as a nation-state is a printing press,” Newsom said, referring to the ability to print money.

Newsom made these announcements on a day that the state’s hospitalization, intensive care unit and infection numbers continued a leveling off trend. Deaths in the state, however, continued to rise, with another 92 Californians dying due to COVID-19. Corona test online kaufen

He cautioned that while the state is reopening some businesses and outdoor activities it shouldn’t be seen as a return to normalcy, Newsom said.

“Tell that to 92 families that were destroyed because they lost a loved one in the past 24 hours,” Newsom said.