Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California
newsletter. It’s
Friday, May 8, and I’m writing from Los Angeles.
Well, the beginning of California’s gradual easing of the stay-at-home order is officially underway. Welcome to the first day of Stage 2.
The newfound ability to replenish your puzzle stash with some nonessential curbside pickup at the local toy store certainly does not mark the end of the lockdown, or even the beginning of an end to our radical disruption. But to paraphrase Winston Churchill, one could certainly argue that we’ve reached the end of the beginning. Now, on to the long road ahead.
On Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new coronavirus safeguards and protocols for retail stores and workplaces eligible to reopen Friday and in the weeks ahead, as well as more details on what counties will have to do to move further through Stage 2.
What’s happening now
Here in Los Angeles, as well as in many other places around the state, book, music and toy stores, florists, sporting goods retailers and clothing stores can now reopen for curbside pickup, unless barred by tougher local restrictions. San Franciscans will have to wait a longer: Officials there announced that storefront pickup for eligible retailers
can begin on May 18.
What’s happening next
Earlier this week, Newsom made clear that the state’s second phase of reopening
wouldn’t happen all at once — some Stage 2 businesses will reopen after others. On Thursday, he unveiled rules that will guide how and when that can happen for individual California communities.
Under the plan, in-restaurant dining, car washes, shopping malls and some office buildings could also be allowed to reopen in coming weeks if public health officials in a county are able to demonstrate that the spread of the coronavirus has stabilized there. County officials must prove to the state that they have adequate testing and hospital capacity and the ability to isolate people with the virus, and trace whom they have contacted.
“We’re moving forward but we’re doing it, always, with an eye being led by the data, by the science, by public health,” Newsom said.
The return to restaurant dining rooms will probably happen on a more expedited timetable in less-populated parts of the state. Counties will be barred from moving forward if they have more than one coronavirus case per 10,000 residents or have had a single COVID-19 death in the prior two weeks.
It’s a high bar that appears to apply equally to counties such as Modoc, with a population of 10,000, as it would to Los Angeles County, home to roughly 10 million people. Meeting these requirements will probably be months away for L.A. County, which remains the state’s primary coronavirus hotspot. Health officials sadly announced
51 new coronavirus-linked fatalities in the county on Thursday alone.
The economic toll
With millions of Californians out of work and many businesses facing financial ruin, the economic impact of the pandemic has put increased pressure on Newsom to begin reopening California and ease his stay-at-home order, as my Sacramento colleagues Taryn Luna and Phil Willon
explain in their story.
The pandemic has also plunged California into the
worst budget deficit in state history. An analysis released Thursday by advisors to Newsom shows the state facing a $54.3-billion budget deficit through next summer, raising the possibility of deep spending cuts or substantial new tax revenues to make up the difference.
That estimate, as Sacramento Bureau Chief John Myers
explains in his story, accounts for a rapid erosion of tax revenues and a growing need for health and human services programs.
And now, here’s what’s happening across California:
In a frantic effort to secure face masks and respond to the coronavirus crisis, California has committed to spend more than $3.7 billion on no-bid contracts, scores of them with businesses that have no track record with the state. A Times data analysis found that nearly a third of those funds — about $1.2 billion — has been earmarked for suppliers of goods and services that do not appear in the state’s database of contracts before the COVID-19 outbreak.
Los Angeles Time
No comments:
Post a Comment