Gavin Newsom, California governor, outlines benchmarks for dialing back coronavirus restrictions

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday outlined a set of benchmarks his state needs to hit in order to consider relaxing some of the social distancing and stay-at-home measures that had been issued in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Trump administration has eyed May 1 as a target date to reopen parts of the U.S. economy, though Mr. Newsom said there’s not a specific timeline for when the state could start dialing things back.

“There’s no light switch here — I would argue it’s more like a dimmer,” Mr. Newsom said.

He said to ask him about a timeline again in two weeks if the state continues to see a decline in hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions.

“Ask me the question then and we will be in a very different place where we could be more prescriptive,” he said.

Mr. Newsom said the changes would likely entail modifications to places like schools and restaurants in order to accommodate social distancing measures.

The other benchmarks are successfully tracking COVID-19 cases through testing and contact tracing, protecting at-risk populations from infection, preparing hospitals for a potential “surge,” making progress on therapeutics, and determining a mechanism to reinstitute the restrictions if things start to worsen again.

“We have a state vision, but it will be realized at a local level,” Mr. Newsom said.

He urged residents to “continue to hold the line on our stay-at-home orders today.”

“Continue to practice physical distancing so that we can continue to see this curve bend,” he said.

California has more than 24,000 coronavirus cases and more than 700 deaths out of a population of close to 40 million people, though hospitalization rates have stabilized recently.

Mr. Newsom was the first U.S. governor to issue a statewide “stay at home” order last month in response to the pandemic. That order came after some California localities had approved their own shelter in place orders.

His Tuesday announcement came a day after President Trump affirmed that the president, and not the states, has the final say on when to reopen states’ economies.

“I’m not going there — we just want to get stuff done in the state of California,” Mr. Newsom said in response to Mr. Trump’s comment.

Mr. Newsom, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown also announced a strategic partnership on Monday in crafting plans to reopen their respective states.