California's June 15 Reopening Will Scrap Social Distancing and Capacity Requirements

Come mid-June, life in California may start to look a whole lot more like pre-pandemic normal again.

In just over three weeks, the state will scrap its social distancing requirements and allow businesses to operate at full capacity, California's top health official announced Friday.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state's health director, said the dramatic statewide decline in COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations, and the increase in vaccinations, is a solid indicator that it will be safe to remove nearly all restrictions by June 15, when the state is planning to "fully reopen."

"Something very important happens on June 15 in California. We are now at a point, given our metrics that we’ve been watching, that California is at a place where we can begin to talk about moving beyond the blueprint,” Ghaly said, referring to the state's color-coded, four-tier system that has restricted activities based on each county’s virus prevalence.

"The big message today is we're at a place with this pandemic when those requirements of the past are no longer needed for the foreseeable future," Ghaly said. Limits on how many people can be inside businesses at any one time, “which have been a hallmark” of the safety plan, will disappear, he said. "Physical distancing: There will no longer be restrictions for customers in business sectors."

The state's workforce regulators are in the process of developing safety rules that will apply to employers, Ghaly added.

But this won't mean an abrupt end to mask-wearing, he said. As the state announced earlier this week, California on June 15 intends to align its masking guidance to correspond to recently — and abruptly — updated national guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those guidelines say it's safe for fully vaccinated people to shed their masks in most situations, except for crowded indoor locations such as airplanes, buses, hospitals and congregate living facilities.

The CDC guidance also recommends mask-wearing and social distancing in K-12 schools through the end of the current school year. State health officials did not immediately respond to questions Friday on whether they plan to uphold those mask-wearing and distancing requirements for schools in the fall.

The state will still recommend that organizers of outdoor events with more than 10,000 people have systems in place for attendees to verify their vaccination status or show a negative test — and encourage those without verification to wear masks. But, Ghaly stressed, "This again, is not a requirement, it is a recommendation."

But for large indoor events with more than 5,000 people, he said, stricter guidelines will remain in place for the foreseeable future. "We are requiring, not recommending the vaccine verification [or] negative test. And there will not be an option to come in if you're neither of those," he said.

Ghaly made clear that California has no plans to create or require a vaccination "passport” or other formal system of verification. Health officials, he said, will instead advise businesses and other organizations that require verification to do so "in a way that doesn't discriminate."

On June 15, the state also plans to adopt the CDC's looser guidelines on domestic and overseas travel, Ghaly said.

That means the lifting of all travel restrictions unless there are certain countries experiencing outbreaks where travel is explicitly discouraged, he said. It also means lifting all voluntary quarantines when people return to California from other states.

"I think our shared objective has always been to get the economy open as quickly as we can by safely doing so," Dee Dee Myers, director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, said during Friday's press call. Her boss, Gov. Gavin Newsom, is facing a recall election this fall driven in large part by those frustrated with the restrictions he put in place during the pandemic and the state's relatively slow pace of reopening.

"Restrictions around eating and drinking, open bars, buffets, things like that will all go away," she said, noting that people can now plan with certainty for events like weddings, conventions and large sporting events. "So that was a really important milestone as we move forward and try to accelerate the reopening and accelerate economic activity. But also doing so safely. And I think the environment is right for that."

California was the first state to issue shutdown orders as the virus erupted in March 2020. And at the start of this year, the state was the nation’s epicenter for the disease, which has now killed nearly 62,000 residents.

But throughout the spring, that outlook has changed dramatically, as cases and hospitalizations have plunged. Several times in the last week, new daily cases have ducked below 1,000, Ghaly said, with just over 1,300 people across the state currently hospitalized with the virus. The state is now reporting a case rate of 2.9 per 100,000, and a test positivity rate of under 1%.

For more than a month, Newsom and state health officials have repeatedly floated June 15 as the date they expect to lift most coronavirus-related requirements, assuming cases remain low and vaccine availability abundant.

"We've gotten to that place," Ghaly said, touting the state's vaccination progress.

The vaccine rollout in California, which earlier this year got off to a rocky start to the detriment of the Newsom administration, has since picked up considerable speed. Anyone who now wants a vaccine, should now able to easily get one, Ghaly said.

"Vaccines are widely available and we're proud of where we are — really among the leading states in the nation with not just the number of doses, but the percentage of our population who has gotten one dose," he said.

The state of 40 million people has to date administered nearly 35.5 million vaccine doses, and more than three-quarters of residents over age 65 — generally considered the most vulnerable population — have received at least one dose. More than 40% of the entire state has been fully vaccinated, with rates beginning to grow among children as young as 12.

But, Ghaly said, "We still have work to do" in increasing vaccination rates among communities that have been hard hit by the pandemic, acknowledging that millions of eligible residents in the state have yet to sign up for appointments.

"Today's announcement, I hope, for individuals who are considering to get vaccinated, just maybe down on the road, today gives them a chance to say this is the right time. Let me get vaccinated," Ghaly said.

He also acknowledged that California's plan carries some definite risks, noting that 10 counties remain in the state's red reopening tier, indicating "substantial" risk. He emphasized that after mid-June, when those tier assignments disappear, local jurisdictions can still choose to implement guidelines stricter than those dictated by the state if deemed necessary.

"Those who have decided not to be vaccinated may remain vulnerable to transmission and to some of the concerning outcomes. And we’re going to be watching that very closely," he said. "But I think we are in a place statewide where we have a significant number of people vaccinated and protected."

Dr. Monica Gandhi, a UCSF professor of medicine, applauded the state's decision.

"I think this is a good thing," she said. "The CDC guidance is extremely sound. It's really based on how incredibly effective these vaccines are."

Throughout the pandemic, Gandhi added, California has been more restrictive and cautious than almost any other state — among only a few yet to adopt the CDC's new guidelines.

But increased vaccination rates in California along with the natural immunity many residents gained during the winter surge have "really profoundly changed the trajectory of the pandemic," she said.

Underscoring that point, Gandhi noted that San Francisco General Hospital reported having zero COVID-19 patients on Thursday.

"We knew [the vaccines] were going to be effective, but we didn't dream it would happen this fast," she said. "It is really exciting, and we should be celebratory, and we should open and prove that immunity works."