Newsom: Not Ready to Relax Restrictions, Testing to Greatly Increase

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Under increasing pressure to reopen parts of the state’s economy, California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that to maintain virus suppression, the state was working to ramp up testing greatly before any large scale reopening can occur.

As he has repeatedly, Newsom said the state would be guided by science and data, and that the virus has not yet shown enough of a decrease in activity to justify reopening the state without a rebound in coronavirus cases becoming likely.

He said that due to shelter-in-place orders, pressure on the state’s hospitals had been relieved enough to once again begin scheduling needed surgeries and other essential procedures which had been delayed as California awaited a coronavirus surge.

He reported that that state was now testing almost 15 thousand residents a day, up from 2 thousand just a few weeks ago, and would have a near team goal of 60 thousand tests per day in the coming weeks and months. He said that testing, and the ability to track, trace and quarantine coronavirus cases, would be “foundational” to any plans for a large scale reopening of the state’s economy.

Newsom also said the state was now testing in more than 600 locations, but would immediately ramp testing up, especially in areas of the state serving the most vunerable and under tested populations, such as care facilities and among the homeless. He said the state now has the materials to test up to 95 thousand people a day, but that would remain an aspirational goal as testing infrastructure ramps up.

And he repeated that the six point framework for reopening announced last week would continue to guide the state’s decision-making. That framework includes expanded testing and contact tracing, protection of vunerable populations, adequate hospital capacity to handle cases, and a plan for possibly ordering further restrictions if the virus once again surges across the state of California.