Pro sporting events without fans, in-store retail and haircuts could potentially resume as early as the first week of June if the state’s transmission rates don’t rise in the next few weeks, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Monday, while church services could be “a few weeks away.”
For pro sports events, Newsom said those reopenings would have to be done with “deep conditions, deep modifications, deep stipulations” to protect players and support staff. “We’re not talking about fans in this respect,” Newsom said. “We’re talking about the opportunity to begin to work with county health directors and work with the state to begin the process of organizing around what that may or may not look like.”
Newsom’s announcements come as California is relaxing the requirements for counties wanting to reopen more quickly. Under the revised set of requirements, counties could move forward into the next phase of reopening if less than 8% of residents who were tested over a week are positive for COVID-19 or if they have less than 25 cases per 100,000 residents in the last two weeks, and if hospitalization rates don’t increase by more than 5% over a week or if they don’t have more than 20 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 on a single day over a 14-day period.
“Bottom line is, people can go at their own pace, and we are empowering our local health directors and county officials that understand their local communities and conditions better than any of us,” Newsom said.
But for counties that can’t meet these requirements yet, their pace for reopening will still be determined by local health officials.
“The Bay Area is in a different position than some parts of the state. L.A. County is in a different position than other parts of the state. They can move at their own pace based upon their own local conditions,” Newsom said.