California governor ends 12 emergencies, but not for COVID

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Multiple California emergencies declared by the last two governors officially ended on Friday — including for heat waves, an oil spill, wildfires and the civil unrest in reaction to George Floyd's murder — but Gov. Gavin Newsom said the threat from the coronavirus lives on and so does the emergency he declared for it nearly two years ago.

In all, Newsom signed an order ending 12 state of emergency declarations, which automatically terminate any associated executive orders relating to those events. But he offered no timeline for ending the statewide coronavirus emergency, meaning he will continue to wield broad authority to change or suspend state laws in response to the pandemic.

Newsom has used that authority to issue 561 orders since the pandemic began. Some were relatively small, like delaying deadlines for filing taxes or renewing driver’s licenses. Others were big, like issuing a statewide stay-at-home order that put millions of people out of work.

Newsom began lifting many of those orders last summer, when he declared the state had “reopened” following a decline in new cases and hospitalizations. But he issued more orders in the winter in response to the omicron surge.

Newsom announced Friday he was terminating an additional 52 orders, leaving only 30 in place.

“We’ll continue to focus on scaling back provisions while maintaining essential testing, vaccination and health care system supports that ensure California has the needed tools and flexibility to strategically adapt our response for what lies ahead,” Newsom said in a news release.

A number of public health orders also remain in place. They are issued by state and local public health officers and are not dependent upon an emergency declaration, said Ann Patterson, Newsom's top...