Rich Pedroncelli/AP
In this photo taken Tuesday April 7, 2020, area residents Terry Hanna, left, her husband, Mike, center, and Melanie Cervi, right, practice social distancing near Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey, Calif., Tuesday, April 7, 2020.
- On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled the state's tentative plan for modifying its stay-at-home order to contain the coronavirus disease.
- But a few things need to happen before state leaders can begin moving forward with the modifications, such as an increase in testing, contact tracing, and better protecting vulnerable residents, such as those who are homeless.
- Newsom did not say when these changes would occur, but even if these modifications are made, life would still look very different.
- Newsom said restaurants could open but with fewer tables and disposable menus, and schools could open but with staggered student cohorts in the morning and afternoon, for example.
- The state's plans come a day after California announced its partnership with Oregon and Washington to develop a regional plan for loosening up on stay-at-home order restrictions and to restart the state's economies.
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In a Tuesday news briefing, California Gov. Gavin Newsom outlined the state's plan for eventually loosening stay-at-home order restrictions.
The governor acknowledged that residents are eager to know when life could return to normal as the statewide stay-at-home order reaches its fourth week but Newsom said multiple factors would need to be considered before modifications could be made to the order's restrictions.
"There's no light switch here," Newsom said in a Tuesday news briefing. "It's more like a dimmer."
He said it will be more of a matter of "toggling" between loosening restrictions and tightening them again as the state explores how best to exit the stay-at-home order. Residents would need to continue to comply with the stay-at-home order, and hospitalization and ICU numbers would need to not only flatten but decline.
The governor did not attach a timeline to it, but he did say this was an "optimistic" plan for California. Newsom invited reporters to "ask me the question again," in two weeks to see how the state was doing relative to meeting the minimum requirements to consider loosening the restrictions.
"This can't be a permanent state, and I want you to know that it's not," Newsom said.
Here's what would need to happen before state leaders and public health officials could begin modifying the stay-at-home order that went into effect on March 19.
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