California Prepares for a Post-COVID World

California’s top health official said Friday that the state no longer will require social distancing and will allow full capacity for businesses when the state reopens on June 15, per the AP. State health director Dr. Mark Ghaly said that dramatically lower virus cases and increasing vaccinations mean it’s safe for the state to remove nearly all restrictions next month. “We will continue to have some masking," but in conformance with national guidelines, Ghaly said. California’s workforce regulators are separately developing safety rules that will continue to apply to employers, he noted.

• The Los Angeles Times sums up: "Come June 15, Californians will wake up to a world that looks nothing like they’ve seen over the past year-plus—one where businesses can open their doors without COVID-19 constraints on capacity or requirements for physical distancing, and where people who are fully vaccinated for the disease no longer need to wear masks in most situations."
• The state will still recommend that organizers of outdoor events with more than 10,000 people require that attendees provide verification that they have been vaccinated or have tested negative for the coronavirus. Those who can’t or don’t provide the verification should be encouraged to wear masks.

• The state will require vaccine verification or negative test results for indoor events with more than 5,000 attendees, but Ghaly said that can be “by self-attestation” with details to come from health officials on how that process will work.
• State officials do not anticipate that they will create or require a vaccination “passport” or other formal verification.
• California was the first state to issue a statewide shutdown as the virus emerged in March 2020 and at the start of 2021 it was the nation’s epicenter for the disease. Nearly 63,000 people have died from the virus in California, the most in any state in the nation.
• The state of 40 million people has administered nearly 35.5 million vaccine doses, and more than three-quarters of residents over age 65 have received at least one dose, said Ghaly.

(More California stories.)