SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gavin Newsom addressed Californians on Friday and talked about his plans for reopening the state. He said that he has created a committee whose sole job is to develop a strategy for California to recover from this pandemic caused recession.
The committee will be chaired by Tom Steyer, and others will include the four living former California governors, Chief People Officer of Square - Jacqueline Reses, Angela Glover Blackwell from PolicyLink, and Bob Iger from the Walt Disney Company.
Steyer said the committee will use California’s ideals of diversity, inclusion, and innovation as their core values. The governor also stressed this will not end up with a report in six months, but there will be real-time and meaningful updates that will lead to reforms and changes to get California on the road to recovery.
Californians also saw its highest overnight death number with an increase of 95 people, bringing the overall number to 985 for the state. The number of people hospitalized went up 1.2% overnight while the number of ICU beds went down 1.4% overnight.
The address came just a day after President Trump announced a three-phase plan to reopen the country.
In phase one the plan recommends the following:
- Strict social distancing for all people in public.
- Gatherings larger than 10 people are to be avoided
- Nonessential travel is discouraged.
- Employers to telework where possible, return to work in phases
In phase two people are encouraged to do the following:
- Non-essential travel for employers can resume
- Schools and organized youth activity can reopen
- Bars, gyms and large venues can reopen with proper social distancing measures in place
- Churches can reopen with social distancing, limiting gatherings to no more than 50 people unless precautionary measures are taken. Travel could resume.
- Elective surgeries can resume
Phase three envisions the following:
- A return to normalcy for most Americans, with a focus on identification and isolation of any new infections.
- Bars, gyms and large venues can reopen with limited social distancing and proper sanitation
