Public schools may reopen as early as July, along with some businesses, according to a coronavirus reopening plan unveiled Tuesday.
By Nick Garber, Patch Staff
Apr 28, 2020 1:07 pm PT | Updated Apr 28, 2020 1:39 pm PT

CALIFORNIA — State officials on Tuesday unveiled a plan to gradually restart public life in California amid the coronavirus crisis, with public schools reopening for the next school year as early as late July and businesses reopening in stages, depending on their level of risk.
The four-stage process for easing the state's stay-home order was unveiled at a news conference by Gov. Gavin Newsom and Dr. Sonia Angell, the state's Public Health Officer. Newsom did not provide a timeline for when restrictions would be eased, but said the state was "weeks, not months, away from making meaningful modifications" to the order, assuming social distancing continues.
According to the state's reopening framework, California is currently in Stage 1: defined by creating a safe environment for essential workers and laying out plans for easing restrictions in the future.
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Learn More The highly anticipated Stage 2 may include reopening schools in late July or August, Newsom said, citing the need to make up for lost learning as the state's students have faced a rough transition to distance education. Lower-risk businesses would also be allowed to reopen during this stage, including manufacturing, retail that allows for curbside pickup and offices that are able to implement social distancing, Angell said.
"Our kids have lost a lot with this disruption," Newsom said, calling distance learning "inadequate" to meet the needs of the state's six million students.
The state will enter this phase through a statewide modification to its stay-home order, Angell said. For that to happen, the state must reach sufficient testing and contact tracing capacity, hospitalization and ICU trends must stabilize and there must be enough PPE to meet demand.
Next, Stage 3 would allow the reopening of "higher risk" workplaces that require person-to-person contact. That includes personal care businesses like gyms and hair salons; churches, weddings and other religious services; and entertainment venues like theaters and sports without audiences.



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A fourth and final stage, in which the state lifts its stay-home order and allows high-risk places like concert venues, live sports and convention centers to reopen, will not come until the state has access to therapeutic drugs to treat COVID-19, Angell said. Experts have warned that that development may take months, if not years.
Avoiding a second waveTuesday's news conference was billed as an update to the fifth of California's six goals that state officials are studying as they decide when to reopen the state. The fifth goal concerns whether businesses, schools and child care facilities are able to maintain social distancing, including state guidelines that may require health checks for employees and customers.
While the state has seen progress in its efforts to slow COVID-19, officials and public health experts have warned repeatedly that reopening the state too soon could cause a disastrous resurgence in cases.
"I want to caution everybody, if we pull back too quickly … it could start a second wave that could be even more damaging than the first," Newsom said Tuesday.
The state's other indicators included whether California had the means to protect its most vulnerable residents from contracting COVID-19, how well the state's hospital systems can handle surges in patients and whether the state had developed new treatments for COVID-19.
Newsom said Tuesday that the state is now testing an average of 20,000 people per day. The state had hoped to reach 25,000 daily tests by the end of April, with an eventual goal of 80,000.
California's testing rate, which experts have called the most important benchmark for containing the coronavirus, still lags behind those of dozens of other states.
As for contact tracing — a crucial way for officials to understand how the virus is spreading — California hopes to train a team of 10,000 tracers, drawing from an existing pool of state workers. Newsom has not said when they will be ready to deploy.
Full coronavirus coverage: Coronavirus In California: What To Know

y Alicia Robinson - April 25, 2020 at 11:10 am, updated April 27, 2020 at 9:48 am


As local, state and federal officials debate the appropriate time to lift coronavirus-related closures, Orange County leaders have convened their own task force on safely reopening businesses.

Directed by Orange County Supervisors Board Chairwoman Michelle Steel and including Supervisor Don Wagner, the group of local business and healthcare leaders held its first conference call Tuesday, April 21 – and it could bring some preliminary recommendations to the board as soon as next week, Wagner said.

While business representatives don’t want to endanger public health, they’re eager for a target date and feel “it is time to figure out what is the medically and scientifically responsible way” to start reopening, Wagner said.

Steel said she’s been talking to business owners who have made deep cuts to their staff, some of whom are now struggling to buy food.

“It’s been horrible,” agreed Mario Marovic, an Orange County restaurateur who is part of the advisory group.

Marovic said he was only able to keep a fraction of the staff at his 11 restaurants, just two of which remain open for take-out orders. The federal loans offered through the CARES Act are useless to him because three-quarters of the money must be spent on payroll in the next two months, but that’s unrealistic for restaurants that aren’t currently open, he said.

The task force also includes industry professionals representing grocers, hotels, entertainment venues, home builders and medical providers.

The two supervisors said their goal is to hash out guidelines for safely reopening, such as when masks and gloves might be required, and in what order to open different industries. While movie theaters and concert halls might have to wait, Wagner said with empty hospital beds and no spike in coronavirus patients so far, hospitals might resume performing some elective surgeries, which help keep them financially solvent.

Marovic said restaurants that are offering take-out already have procedures to sanitize their facilities, and he’s willing to discuss masks and customer capacity, but he believes May 1 should be the goal to reopen.

People should have the freedom to decide whether they feel comfortable going out to shop or dine, Marovic said, adding, “we did what we needed to do, we did it responsibly and now we need to open responsibly.”

At the moment, the state’s shutdown order remains in place, and Wagner said he doesn’t plan to challenge it unless mandated closures drag on beyond when most business and health experts agree it’s safe to proceed.

While May 1 may be overly optimistic, Wagner said, he believes reopening should begin within weeks, because “June 1 is way too late.”

Drive-Up Coronavirus Test Site Opens In Redondo BeachThree more drive-up coronavirus testing sites opened Friday, including one in the South Bay.
By Emily Holland, Patch Staff
Apr 3, 2020 9:08 am PT | Updated Apr 3, 2020 9:09 am PT

REDONDO BEACH, CA — Los Angeles County is opening three more drive-up coronavirus testing sites Friday, including one in Redondo Beach. The county is also planning for at least three more of the testing sites.

The Redondo Beach testing site with be at the South Bay Galleria at 1815 Hawthorne Boulevard. The other two will be at the Pomona Fairplex at Gate 17, W. McKinley/Fairplex Drive and the Antelope Valley Mall at 1233 Rancho Vista Boulevard in Palmdale. Testing is by appointment only. Walk-up appointments are not available. Additional sites in Northridge, Long Beach, Lancaster and Pasadena are in the planning stages, and sites in Lancaster and Glendale are already operating.

The county's COVID-19 testing is limited to the most vulnerable residents — those who are age 65 and older and/or have underlying health conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, chronic lung disease, or moderate to severe asthma.

Testing is also limited to those who are immunocompromised, including as a result of cancer treatment, and/or have been subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine period because they have been exposed to an individual with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and have more than seven days of the two-week quarantine period remaining.

Anyone interested in getting tested must first register on the screening website.

This first step determines if people are eligible to be tested. At the website, individuals are asked to answer basic questions, including name, date of birth, address and whether they are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, coughing and difficulty breathing.

The website — in real time — determines and confirms an individual's testing eligibility. Those who receive confirmation of testing eligibility will then be given a selection of testing sites, and available appointment times to complete the test registration process.

The registration number will be required at the testing site. All of the testing locations are drive-up and clients stay in their vehicles for tests — though pedestrian clients with appointments can be tested, as well.

The test is a self-administered oral swab, meaning clients must swab their own mouths/throats using instructions provided to them at the site. The testing process takes between 5 and 10 minutes, however waiting times may vary. More information and frequently asked questions are available at covid19.lacounty.gov/testing.

"The goal is to increase testing capacity as quickly as possible in Los Angeles County to meet the community's needs, which are growing every day," said Dr. Clayton Kazan, medical director of the L.A. County Fire Department, who is leading the countywide coordination of COVID-19 testing. Kazan is tasked with supporting and scaling the efforts of cities and healthcare providers that have begun their own testing programs, merge them into the countywide network and ensure that they have adequate supplies.

For more information and FAQs, go to the L.A. County coronavirus webpage. To register and see if you are eligible for a test, visit the City of Los Angeles coronavirus webpage.