California- Move On To A “New Phase” To Manage Living With The Risk

California was the first state in the U.S to go into a lockdown over coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic. Now it has decided to move on to a “new phase” to manage living with the risk.

California- Move On To A “New Phase” To Manage Living With The Risk

Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, said that people need to learn to live with the virus. He says he plans to guide the State into preparing and being flexible enough to adjust to change, he emphasizes that this move does not mean a victory over the coronavirus it is rather just a move from the pandemic phase by learning a lesson.

The Governor’s plans include close monitoring and being updated on the data and responding as quickly as possible to any new emerging variants or changes. He mentioned that the State will test wastewater to spot new variants and also supply as many as 75 million masks and other required PPE kits to those in need. The State also aims at administering about 200,000 vaccines per day as and when needed.

This strategy is marked as a huge shift from the pandemic phase and all the restrictions as the economy and businesses incurred losses. Now as the omicron surge is fading, Newsom says it is time to move forward and come out of that phase and be ready to face new challenges. 

People have already put a mindset to move on from the crisis, they have been desperate to look away and are ready to go back to normal life as they were pre-covid. The Governor says that this time the people will have full support from the government and that they will make sure of the safety of the public at any cost. 

This new phase or plan is given an acronym SMARTER which aims at making sure that the State will be able to make use of the resources for testing wastewater to detect new outbreaks. California has lost 82,500 people approximately due to the pandemic.

The State will now work together with healthcare workers to make sure that hospitals should be able to staff at least 3,000 additional healthcare providers if there are any future outbreaks. Along with other democratic leaders, Newsom also has removed the mask mandates in California. He will be joined by Washington and New Mexico who also plan to drop the mask mandate. New York, Nevada, and many others are moving towards a “new normal” they say.

The move has put the Biden administration in a dilemma as these states are going against the federal guidelines but the CDC head has said that they will give an update on the new guidelines soon.

The Director of CDC, Rochelle Walensky has said that they want to give people a break from all the rules and restrictions since things are a little in control now, should things get worse in the future everyone will be ready to adapt to the change since this pandemic was a lot to learn from. 

States are now all set to move away from the pandemic phase and say a temporary goodbye to all the restrictions and mandates. But they have promised to take all the precautionary measures in the future should there be a need for it.

Washington has also decided that there will be no need for masking in close settings or spaces like classrooms and that students or teachers will not be required to put on masks in the class. The Governor, Gavin Newsom has said that the State will announce a timeline for lifting the mask mandate on February 28th.