CA Lifts Regional Stay-At-Home Order As Critics Say It Hid Data

CALIFORNIA — Swaths of businesses that have been shuttered for more than a month will begin reopening this week as California lifted its strict regional stay-at-home order Monday. Data released Monday showed that the state's winter surge of COVID-19 was finally beginning to ebb, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced.

Cancellation of the stringent regional order means the state will shift back to its original system of county by county restrictions intended to mitigate the spread of the virus. The state also lifted a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.

"California is slowly starting to emerge from the most dangerous surge of this pandemic yet, which is the light at the end of the tunnel we’ve been hoping for," Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health secretary, said in a Monday morning statement. He added: "Our surge after the December holidays did not overwhelm the health care system to the degree we had feared."

Newsom said that the state's positivity rate, 8 percent, now ranks 26th in the nation.

The seemingly abrupt decision came as public health officials were able to document downward trends in the state's rate of infections, hospitalizations and intensive care unit capacity problems. Just last week, Ghaly said that the regional health orders would remain until ICU capacity projections met or surpassed the 15 percent threshold.

Newsom's administration faced accusations over the weekend that California officials weren't disclosing key virus data. Before Monday, officials had not disclosed the formula used to calculate capacity projections for intensive care units. State health officials previously said that the complex set of measurements would confuse and potentially mislead the public if they were made visible to everyone.

But Newsom on Monday revealed the four-week ICU capacity projections that would officially lift the order. Projected capacity depends on four variables, Newsom said: current estimated ICU capacity, current community transmission, regional case rates and proportion of cases admitted to the ICU.

Termination of the controversial order came as a petition to recall the governor garnered more than 1.2 million signatures. Supporters for the effort have also raised more than $1.7 million for a recall, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Newsome denied that Monday's decision was politically motivated. "That’s just complete and utter nonsense," he said, adding that the reopening was the result of the recently calculated four-week projections.

The regional ICU projections calculated by the state for Feb. 21 were as follows:

Southern California: 33.3 %

San Joaquin Valley: 22.3%

Greater Sacramento: 18.9 %

Northern California: 27.3%

“Californians heard the urgent message to stay home as much as possible and accepted that challenge to slow the surge and save lives,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, director and state public health officer of the California Department of Public Health. “Together, we changed our activities knowing our short-term sacrifices would lead to longer-term gains. COVID-19 is still here and still deadly, so our work is not over, but it’s important to recognize our collective actions saved lives and we are turning a critical corner.”

Speculation emerged Sunday night that the order would lift when CBS 47 reporter Mederios Babb posted an email from the California Restaurant Association on Twitter.

"Late this evening, senior officials in the Newsom administration informed us that the Governor will announce tomorrow that the stay-at-home order will be lifted in all regions of the state," the email read.

Newsom imposed the order in early December in response to a cold weather and holiday-fueled surge. The order forced most of the state to close down salons and many other businesses, including dine-in services at restaurants that had just begun to reopen.

Services and activities, such as outdoor dining and personal services, may resume immediately with required modifications, subject to any additional restrictions required by local jurisdictions. —Jan. 25 statement from the California Department of Public Health

The order came down for four of the five designated regions when intensive care unit capacity fell below a 15 percent threshold. Over the weekend, the San Francisco Bay Area's ICU capacity increased to 23 percent, while the San Joaquin Valley reached only 1.3 percent.

The order was lifted for the highly affected Southern California region even though the area's ICU capacity remains at zero percent. The purple tier status of the county will likely keep it mostly shuttered.

The order never included the 11-county Northern California region, where the ICU capacity reached 41.2 percent over the weekend.

The state will now move back into a color-coded coronavirus case assessment blueprint, a tiered system that dictates the level of restrictions on businesses and individuals based on virus conditions in each of California's 58 counties.

The state still remains affected by a high rate of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, and many counties will go back to the most restrictive purple tier. The tier allows for outdoor dining, hair and nail salons to remain open and outdoor church services. Bars that only serve beverages will remain shuttered.

A county supervisor in Los Angeles, home to 10 million people, expressed support for opening more businesses in the county. Republican Supervisor Kathryn Barger said the state must balance public health with “devastating social, emotional and economic impacts of this virus."

“I support following the governor’s recommended guidelines for Southern California and reopening outdoor dining, personal care services and other industries that were previously closed by these orders," she said.

See this county map to find the status of businesses and activities open in each California county.

The Associated Press and Patch staffer Kat Schuster contributed to this report.

READ MORE: Newsom: Science, Not Politics, Prompts Lifting Of Stay-Home Order