Before #CaliforniaLockdown Ends, We Must Answer Six Questions, Says Gov. Gavin Newsom

4/14/20. California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered his daily press briefing Tuesday, looking forward to a day in the future when the nation's largest State begins to reopen.

"When will we reopen? We have to be able to answer all those six questions." The governor referred to a list of questions that had just been posed by Dr. Sonia Y. Angell, California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer: California's 6 indicators for modifying the Stay at Home Order.

1.) Ability to monitor and protect our community through testing, contact tracing, isolating, and supporting those who are positive or exposed.

2.) The ability to prevent infection in people who are at risk for more severe Covid-19. Includes those living in facilities.

3.) Hospitals have adequate beds, staff, supplies, masks, ventilators? Can we address other critical healthcare needs?

4.) The ability to develop therapeutics to meet the demand.

5.) The ability for businesses, schools, and child care facilities to support physical distancing. Do we have supplies to keep workforce and customers safe?

6.) The ability to determine when to reinstitute certain measures, such as stay at home orders. Things will look different. Restaurants will likely reopen with fewer tables. Masks will be common in public. This will bring new opportunities to support mitigation," Angell said.

Newsom reports that he is working with governors in other Western states, to form a broader regional protocol. "There's no light switch here, more like a dimmer," he said, meaning California would not reopen all at once.

"More responsibility for those who have been exposed, more enforcement. No playbook here. There will be a new normal until we have heard immunity and a vaccine," he said.

So what will the future look like?

"Your temperature may be checked before you go into an establishment," Newsom predicted. "Waiters may have masks and gloves, and disposable menus. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be looking at those six key categories. So no reopen date," Newsom said.

Turning to the daily casualty count: Santa Monica reported 96 Covid cases, which works out to 104 per 100,000. Los Angeles County Covid 19 cases totalled 10,470. Noting that anyone who has Covid-19 at the time of death is counted as a Covid casualty, California deaths total 360.

California has 24,442 Coronavirus cases, and 758 deaths attributed to Coronavirus, Newsom said. 4/14/20. Gov. Newsom. Talking about plan to lift the Stay at Home order, with WA, and OR. People have been able to bend the curve by staying at home.

But today, we had 71 new deaths for a total of 758 deaths. We're not out of the woods.

Dr. Angell: "Early models showed the surge capacity in hospitals if we took no intervention. New model shows much lower curve. But that does not mean we can just stop. We still have to ensure our ability to care for the sick, and to prevent infection for high risk people. Until we build immunity, we have to build the capacity to protect the health and well being of the public. Current efforts are hard to sustain for the impact on economy, poverty, and healthcare."