California Is First State to Switch to 'Endemic' Policy

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced the first shift by a state to an "endemic" approach to the coronavirus pandemic that emphasizes prevention and quick reactions to outbreaks over mandates. It's a milestone nearly two years in the making that harkens to a return to a more normal existence, the AP reports. Newsom said the approach—which includes pushing back against false claims and other misinformation—means maintaining a wary watchfulness attuned to warning signs of the next deadly new surge or variant. "This disease is not going away," he said before his formal announcement. "It's not the end of the quote, unquote, war."

A disease reaches the endemic stage when the virus still exists in a community but becomes manageable as immunity builds. But there will be no definitive turn of the switch, the Democratic governor said, unlike the case with Wednesday's lifting of the state's indoor masking requirements or an announcement coming Feb. 28 of when precisely the school mask-wearing mandate will end. And there will be no immediate lifting of the dozens of remaining executive emergency orders that have helped run the state since Newsom imposed the nation's first statewide stay-home order in March 2020. "This pandemic won't have a defined end. There's no finish line," he said.

So Newsom said his administration made "a plan that allows us to be prepared without being paranoid." The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020, and with omicron fading in many places, some countries are planning for the endemic stage. The plan calls for boosting the state's surveillance, including increased monitoring of virus remnants in wastewater to watch for the first signs of a surge. Masks won't be required but will be encouraged in many settings. Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at UC-San Francisco, likes the idea. "They have a long-term plan that’s trying to capture these events as they occur and has the supply chain stuff you need to have pre-positioned so that we can move forward in a thoughtful but rapid way to control new outbreaks," he said.

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