California reopens more widely as infections hit lowest rate

LOS ANGELES (AP) — More of California was cleared to reopen additional businesses Tuesday, including most of the San Francisco Bay Area and one of Southern California's largest counties, as coronavirus infection rates have fallen to their lowest level of the pandemic.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state health secretary, also said nail salons could resume operations with restrictions statewide, though he cautioned that California's reopening must remain “slow and stringent” and residents cannot let their guard down as flu season arrives and cases rise in Europe and other parts of the U.S.

The lifting of some restrictions in counties that have shown improvement comes as California tries for a second time to recover from the devastating impact COVID-19 has had on business. An earlier effort to reopen more quickly backfired with a surge in cases and hospitalizations in late spring and early summer.

That forced a second shutdown that was punishing for business owners, but helped bring the infection rate to 2.8% for the last week. Hospitalizations dropped to a level not seen since the first week of April. The state has had more than 790,000 confirmed cases, the most in the country, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. California ranks fourth for deaths nationwide with more than 15,000.

The state's more conservative approach to reopening is based on the percentage of positive tests and per capita new cases in each of the 58 counties. Each of the four tiers for reopening include ranges for those categories and a county must meet both for two consecutive weeks before advancing to a higher tier.

If they fail on one or both counts for two weeks, they are bumped to a more restrictive tier that could force closures or restrict indoor operations.

That majority of counties are now out of the most restrictive tier,...