California Became First US State To Lift Pandemic Restrictions

California was the first state in the US to have imposed lockdown with strict restrictions 15 months ago. Recently on Tuesday, they celebrated the “reopening day” after almost all the restrictions were lifted.

People who are vaccinated will enjoy the luxury of taking off their masks in the nation’s richest and most populous state. But still, there will be exceptions for locations including public transport, schools and hospitals.

“Finally we are here, June 15, to turn the page, to move beyond capacity limits… move beyond social distancing and physical distancing,” said Governor Gavin Newsom, at a ceremony to mark “the full reopening of the California economy.”

The reopening of the state was decided around two months ago. And this opening represents a dramatic improvement in fortunes for California.

The state acted with extreme precautions at the start of the pandemic but the situations worsened last winter as it became the US COVID-19 epicentre.

“There was a point, not too many months ago in January when… we had run out of body bags in parts of southern California,” Newsom reminded a small crowd outside Los Angeles´ famous Universal Studios Hollywood theme park.

“We saw way more death than we´d ever like to see — we held way too many hands because families were not able to come into the unit,” said nurse Helen Cordova, the first Californian to get a vaccine dose last December.

Since the vaccination drive started in California, it delivered 40.5 million doses – 16 million more than the rest of the states. It has ranked lowest among the US states with a low positivity rate.

However, the early and broad limitations imposed by the overwhelmingly Democratic state prompted harsh criticism, notably from Republicans and many business owners who sought a speedier reopening.

“This was a state that was guided by science, by data, by facts, by observed evidence, not ideology,” said a maskless Newsom.

“A lot of the politics took shape unfortunately as it relates to mask-wearing, as relates to the vaccination programs,” he added.

California has a population of 40 million. It contributes almost 15pc to the GDP of the US.

The governor of California, Gavin Christopher Newsom, pointed out that the state has generated 38pc of all the new jobs across the nation in April.

“We´re the tentpole of the American economy in terms of its taking on the recovery. And that´s because of our health interventions — not despite them,” he said.

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