California governor outlines plan to reopen state

Incremental steps to loosen stay-at-home orders could begin after "a few weeks" of evidence that the rates of infection and hospitalization from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, have decreased, California Governor Gavin Newsom said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Freddie Joyner has more.

(SOUNDBITE)(ENGLISH) CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM SAYING: “I don’t want to make a political decision that put’s people’s lives at risk” California Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced a set of steps needed for his state to reopen its economy and ultimately recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

(SOUNDBITE)(ENGLISH) CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM SAYING: "We have a perimeter and a framework that will guide our decision making...But the framework has the ability to do six things.

The most important framework is our capacity to expand our testing and appropriately address the tracing and tracking of individuals, the isolation and the quarantine of individuals using technology and a workforce that needs to be trained in order to be in place for the transition." Newsom also described what he called the “new normal” in California once the lockdown in the state is finally lifted..

(SOUNDBITE)(ENGLISH) CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM SAYING: “...as I said normal it will not be, at least until we have herd immunity and we have a vaccine.

As someone like yourself who looks forward to going back out and having dinner, as the doctor said you may be having dinner with a waiter wearing gloves, maybe a face mask.

Dinner where the menu is disposable, where half of the tables in that restaurant no longer appear, where your temperature is checked when you walk into the establishment…” Over 24,000 people in California have been diagnosed with COVID-19, including over 700 deaths according to media reports.

Far lower than in other populous U.S. states, like New York.