Governor Newsom announced on Monday that some retail businesses forced to close due the pandemic, will be allowed to re-open later this week, “As early as the end of this week, you will have the capacity as a retailer with the modifications and the guidelines we set forth on Thursday to begin to reopen for pickup: clothing, book stores, music, toys, sporting goods stores, florists -- with Mothers Day coming up."
The governor's plan also allows local leaders to make more granular decisions, so that they can reopen businesses as they deem appropriate, but counties will still be required to meet specific requirements, such as number of hospital beds, testing kits, and ability to trace an infected individual to anyone they had contact with.
“Once that is done, we need active monitoring, surveillance, to make sure the disease is not spreading,'' he said. “If it is, one of the criteria is a trigger to re-modify the changes, so we just want folks to know we need to toggle back and forth here on the basis of what's happening in those communities.
The order does not include sit-down dining in restaurants, or office workplaces, who will need to continue work-from-home policies.
While the governor was optimistic, he also cautioned that the state will need to be prepared for set-backs, “... This is a very positive sign and it's happened only for one reason: the data says it can happen,'' Newsom said. “But we recognize as we begin to modify, behaviors modify, and possible community spread may occur. If that's the case and we do not have the capacity to control that spread, to trace that spread, to track that spread, isolate individuals when they've been in contact with COVID-19, we will have to make modifications anew.''
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