Sun's out, surf's up and California's reopening more widely

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Cheering fans instead of cardboard cutouts at Dodger Stadium. Screaming thrill-seekers riding the Giant Dipper roller coaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Beer lovers bellying up to, well, a table outside a brewery.

Even with some limitations that exclude drinking at a bar, a lot of activities Californians haven’t been able to enjoy for most of the past year are suddenly within reach as the state reopens more widely.

April is bringing a fresh breath of warm spring air after a stale year of coronavirus closures. It also may be unleashing a strain of spring fever that was dormant after Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed the first statewide lockdown last March.

“After about a year of being hidden inside, nobody knows how to behave when they go out in public,” cartoon portrait artist Walt Davis said Wednesday while waiting for customers near the Santa Monica Pier. “It’s been nuts. People come out in public just go crazy right now.”

April arrives with COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths dropping and new infections remaining low. Vaccines open more widely Thursday — to people 50 and over — although supplies remain limited.

But health officials are still urging caution to avoid a fourth wave of the pandemic sweeping across much of the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the state was in better shape than others because 12 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine and there’s a fair bit of immunity — with an estimated 37% of people in Los Angeles County having been infected.

“California has a shot. I think we have a good chance of beating the fourth wave,” Rutherford said. “We’re much more conservative in...