Gov. Gavin Newsom has lifted regional stay-at-home orders across California, meaning hair salons and outdoor dining at restaurants could reopen in many counties for the first time since early December.
The state will now return to a county-by-county model for reopening, with tiers of restrictions based on the county’s test positivity rate and coronavirus caseload, according to an announcement by state public-health officials Monday morning.
All but four of the state’s 58 counties still fall under the most restrictive purple tier, where transmission of the virus remains widespread. In those areas, many businesses that can’t operate outdoors must remain closed and even bars and breweries with outdoor space cannot reopen.
State public-health officials said the decision to exit the state’s stay-at-home order was made after they projected that all five of the state’s regions would exceed 15% capacity of their intensive-care units within the next four weeks. The Newsom administration hasn’t shared how it makes those calculations or the data behind them.
“Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains,” said California public health officer Dr. Tomás Aragón. “Covid-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.”
Mr. Newsom has been under increasing political pressure to reopen the economy in California, where cases remain high despite having some of the tightest restrictions in the country. Over the weekend, proponents of an effort to recall him said they had gathered more than 1.2 million signatures to qualify a recall for the ballot.