KTLA

Newsom faces mounting pressure from rural NorCal to ease stay-at-home rules

A man looks on as hundreds of people gather to protest the lockdown in spite of stay-at-home rules still being in effect at California's state capitol building in Sacramento on April 20, 2020. (JOSH EDELSON/AFP via Getty Images)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other top state and local health officials have made it clear it’s still too early and risky to ease stay-at-home orders, which have been credited with slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Still, Newsom is expected to face more pressure this week to offer a clearer timeline, especially in parts of California where the virus appears to be a lessening threat.

There has been a growing movement from politicians in some rural or less urbanized parts of the state to request an easing of the rules, arguing that the situation there is not as severe as hot spots like Los Angeles County and Silicon Valley.

The latest request to Newsom comes from elected officials in Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Yuba, Sutter and Colusa counties in Northern California. They say that cases and deaths in the region appear to have stabilized and that the stay-at-home order should be modified in those areas to help restart the economy. They said that as of Friday, there was only one coronavirus patient in the intensive care unit at local hospitals.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.