12 California counties given green light to reopen restaurants, malls
Gov. Gavin Newsom stands by a fire truck in El Dorado County. May 13, 2020
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that 10 new counties have been given the green light to modify their stay-at-home orders, bringing the total on Wednesday to 12.
They are: Amador, Butte, El Dorado, Lassen, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Tuolumne, Yuba and Sutter counties.
Sutter and Yuba counties, which along with Modoc, had defied the governor by reopening before getting state approval.
Newsom’s administration last week threatened to withhold federal disaster funds if they continued under their own plans, which they did. However, that obviously did not impact their applications.
This means that each county has met certain criteria in containing the COVID-19 outbreak and they now may consider increasing the pace at which they advance through Stage 2.
Practically, it means that counties can't have any more than 1 COVID-19 case per 10,000 and zero deaths in 14 days prior to the submission date.
Hospitals have to have the appropriate protective gear and enough capacity to accept coronavirus patients, and counties have to provide a testing volume of 1.5 to 1,000 residents.
Counties also have to prove they have suffered minimal impact from the pandemic, have plans for a safe reopening and can adequately react if there is a resulting surge in coronavirus infections.
El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, was more than ready to move ahead, county spokeswoman Carla Hass said.
“The dining restaurants are the sector that people are most excited about and that owners are most prepared to reopen. I think we’ll see a lot of restaurants open today and in coming days,” she said.
Despite the governor's OK, not every business can immediately jump back into the economy.
California Business Properties Association President and CEO Rex Hime said companies have much work to do to ensure worker safety in offices and prevent a surge of new infections.
“I don’t see a huge stampede of people rushing back to their offices. I think that will happen over time,” Hime said.
Newsom said he's in "consultation" with 31 other counties. Negotiations, for the most part, he said, are going well.
However, "some are not where they need to be," Newsom said, adding that they need to make some "foundational" changes before getting approval.
While counties may apply for variances to open more quickly, other counties may also choose to hold back.
That is the case in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County, the latter of which has a quarter of the state’s population but more than half the virus deaths.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported in Oakland, Calif.
Lisa Fernandez is a reporter for KTVU. Email Lisa at lisa.fernandez@foxtv.com(opens in new tab) or call her at 510-874-0139. Or follow her on Twitter @ljfernandez