Gavin Newsom expected to lift stay-at-home order across California, restaurant group says

Update:

With California’s coronavirus infection and hospitalization numbers showing signs of rapid improvement from high winter peaks, state health officials on Monday morning lifted the regional stay-at-home order, which had been in place for most of the state since early December. Read the full update here.

Original story:

The California Restaurant Association on Sunday informed its members that Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to make an announcement Monday lifting his COVID-19 stay-at-home order across the state, allowing more businesses to open.

Two regions of the state, Northern California and the Sacramento area, are already under relaxed coronavirus rules that allow outdoor dining and some other business activity.

The announcement Monday is expected to apply to the rest of the state, meaning the Bay Area, Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley.

“Again, a formal announcement is expected tomorrow and we will send you further information as soon as it’s available. For now, we thought you’d like to know this good news,” the message states.

Newsom’s regional stay-at-home order was put into place in early December when a wave of coronavirus cases overwhelmed intensive care units in the San Joaquin Valley and in Southern California. As of Sunday, 36,790 Californians have died after testing positive for COVID-19, and the state has recorded more than 3 million cases.

Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the Office of Emergency Services, responded on behalf of the Governor’s Office when asked about the California Restaurant Association memo.

“We see promising signs that California is slowly emerging from the most intense stage of this pandemic. We continue to look at what that means for the Regional Stay at Home order and anticipate that the state Department of Public Health will provide a formal update tomorrow morning.”

Fresno Bee reporter Bethany Clough contributed to this report.