At a Monday news conference in Los Angeles, Newsom revealed that retail businesses that may open this week include clothing stores, florists, bookstores and sporting goods stores. However, offices, restaurants with seated dining and shopping malls will remain closed at this time.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 4, 2020
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) May 4, 2020
"On Friday I said we were days not weeks from announcing modifications to the stay-at-home order, and today we are announcing our efforts to update the stay-at-home guidelines and begin the process of moving to Stage 2," Newsom said.
The guidelines for Stage 2 allow retail, manufacturing and other "low-risk" businesses to open up.
"As early as by end of this week, you will have the capacity as retailer to begin to reopen for pickup: clothing, bookstore, musics, sporting goods, florists as Mother's Day approaches and other sectors within that retail sector," Newsom added.
“It has to be done in a very thoughtful and judicious way … We just want folks to know we need to toggle back and forth here on the basis of what’s happening in these communities in real time,” Newsom continued.
Despite the fact that the state may begin loosening lockdown restrictions, local jurisdictions may continue to enforce stricter restrictions. Last week, the Bay Area stated that it will continue to enforce strict guidelines throughout May.
“Those that have more stricter guidelines, we are not preempting their guidelines. We’ll still allow them to move forward,” Newsom noted.
"The Bay Area has guidelines that are a little more strict," he pointed out. "If they choose not to comply with those guidelines, they have that right."
Dozens of states across the US, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida and Texas, are beginning to lift lockdown measures.
However, US states are beginning ease restrictions as the country just had its deadliest day on record, according to statistics published by the World Health Organization (WHO). On Saturday, at least 2,909 people died due to the coronavirus in 24 hours, marking the highest daily COVID-19 death toll in the US since the outbreak began, according to a CNBC analysis.
The latest data by Worldometer reveals there have been more than 1.2 million cases of the virus in the US, and almost 70,000 people have died due to COVID-19.
