California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that the next stage of reopening California's economy will begin on Friday, May 8.
"On Friday, I said we were days not weeks from announcing modifications to the stay-at-home order, and today we are announcing our efforts to update the stay-at-home guidelines and begin the process of moving to Stage 2," said Gov. Newsom. "As early as by end of this week, you will have the capacity as retailer to begin to reopen for pickup - clothing, bookstores, music shops, sporting goods, florists as Mother's Day approaches and other sectors within that retail sector."
At his daily press briefing on Monday, May 4, Newsom announced that certain low-risk businesses will be permitted to resume operations solely for curbside pick-up starting this Friday, May 8, including clothing stores, toy stores, florists, bookstores, and others. Furthermore, associated manufacturers that support those retail supply chains will also be allowed to resume production. Businesses will be required to follow increased safety and hygiene protocols that will be unveiled this Thursday. Office buildings, dine-in restaurants and shopping malls will not be permitted to reopen under the modified order. Newsom also stated that rural areas of the state have the right to move further into Phase 2 by allowing the reopening of restaurants, offices, shopping malls and other businesses if they meet guidelines the state releases Thursday, so long as it does not risk the "health of the entire state." Newsom also indicated that he is working with professionals to implement guidelines to allow restaurants and other hospitality businesses to reopen in the near future.
"We are not telling locals that believe it's too soon, too fast to modify," continued Newsom. "We believe those local communities that have separate timelines should be afforded the capacity to advance those timelines. If they choose not to come into compliance with the state guidelines, they have that right. This is a very positive sign and it has happened for only one reason: the data says it can happen. But we recognize as we begin to modify - possible community spread will occur. If that is the case, and we don't have the capacity to control that spread, to track that spread, to isolate individuals that may have been in contact with COVID-19, we will have to make modifications anew."
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