Essential California April 29, 2020 Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Wednesday, April 29, and I’m writing from Los Angeles. In the nearly six weeks since Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order, the governor has often compared the process of reopening California to the dimmer feature on a light fixture. There is no simple on/off switch for life returning to normal during an ongoing pandemic — especially not when nearly 40 million people in the world’s fifth-largest economy are concerned. It will be a gradual process, even in a best-case scenario. On Tuesday, Newsom laid out the clearest plan yet for reopening the nation’s most populous state. And Californians can expect Newsom’s new plan to operate a bit like that dimmer switch, slowly letting the light of normalcy back into our lives in a series of distinct phases. [Read the story: “Some California businesses could reopen within weeks as state fights coronavirus, Newsom says” in the Los Angeles Times] The four-phase plan also came with an announcement that may be music to the ears of some exhausted California parents: Kids could possibly be returning to classrooms as early as late July or early August, with the next academic year potentially starting in the summer to address learning losses brought on by coronavirus-forced school closures. Few details about the logistics necessary to reopen schools were offered during the briefing, but the governor did suggest that the second phase of his plan might include physically reopening some K-12 campuses to offer summer school programs or consider an earlier start to the new school year. The plan itself — which provides a blueprint for slowly reopening the state while preventing new outbreaks that could lead to another shutdown — isn’t structured around any guaranteed timetable. Instead, officials will use various benchmarks around testing, hospitalization and other factors to guide the state’s forward momentum. Phase one is where we currently are: operating under an unprecedented stay-at-home order that limits all but essential activities while the state focuses on safety and preparedness. Phase two, which could start as soon as a few weeks from now, will see some lower-risk businesses begin to reopen with safety modifications.Lower-risk businesses and workplaces, such as retail (possibly with curbside pickup) and nonessential manufacturing, will reopen during this phase. But things will probably look quite different from before, with strict distancing guidelines and physical modifications to enable that distancing. Newsom said his office is meeting with economic recovery teams to determine what the guidelines should look like for each sector to ensure the safety of workers and consumers. Limits on access to public space, likely including some parks and trails, will also loosen during this phase. As mentioned above, the second phase might include a plan for allowing some K-12 schools to either offer summer programs or consider an earlier start to the new academic year. More child care facilities will also be able to resume operations. Phase three — which officials have categorized as being months, not weeks, away — will allow higher-risk workplaces to reopen. That higher-risk category includes businesses that by definition necessitate close interpersonal contact, such as hair and nail salons, as well as gyms, movie theaters and in-person religious services. Phase four is when things fully go back to “normal,” if anyone even remembers what that looks like. Think tens of thousands of people at a concert, conventions and crowded sports arenas. Newsom reiterated that a true return to “the way things were” won’t come until Californians have access to a vaccine, or we reach herd immunity. [Read the full story: “This is California’s reopening plan for stores, offices, schools, sports, concerts, theaters” in the Los Angeles Times] What else you should know: The “four phases” are not to be confused with the “six indicators,” but the two phrases are connected. The state’s six indicators for modifying the stay-at-home order — which include the ability to test and monitor new infections, and the health system’s capacity to handle potential surges — will help guide decision-making about moving through the four phases. Newsom also made a point of recognizing the regionality of the state during Tuesday’s briefing, saying that the points of local health departments must be considered. Think of the state order as the baseline for what all Californians must follow, with localities able to layer their own more stringent guidelines on top of it. Cities and counties will not, however, be allowed to opt for less-restrictive guidelines, at least for the time being. And one last thing: If we’ve learned anything over the last six weeks, it’s that nothing is written in stone. Not our best-laid plans for what we thought our lives would be like in April 2020. And certainly not this four-phase plan, which is a road map that could be altered based on any number of factors as the virus progresses. “Politics will not drive our decision making. Protest won’t drive our decision making. Political pressure will not drive our decision making,” Newsom said. “The science, the data, public health will drive our decision making.”