Nearly a third of California’s 58 counties have certified to the state that they have contained the spread of COVID-19, which allows them to reopen restaurants to dine-in service, as well as shopping malls and other businesses, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday.
The 19 counties that have attested to meeting state standards for containment are mostly in rural areas of Northern California with small populations. They represent about 4.5% of the state’s population and do not include urban centers such as Los Angeles and San Francisco that remain largely on lockdown.
“As of today, the attestations are up and those counties — 19 now — are moving deeper into the second phase of reopening large sectors of their economy,” Newsom said during a news conference where he announced a revised state budget in response to the pandemic.
The state is continuing talks with other counties that are trying to meet state standards for testing, hospital availability and numbers of cases.
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