California’s Coronavirus Strategy

The state is flattening the curve. What comes next?

Ever since reports emerged last week that California has successfully bent the curve, people have anxiously awaited the news that might follow: When the state will start to let up on social distancing. In a press briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California is starting to enter what he dubbed phase four of the pandemic, “the optimistic phase,” moving from surge to suppression.

“This transition, where we do see light at the end of the tunnel, where there is a ray of optimism and hopefulness that this too shall pass, is also perhaps the most difficult and challenging phase of all,” Newsom said during a press conference. “And that’s saying a lot because the last few weeks and months have been very challenging for all of us. But this phase is one where science, where public health — not politics — must be the guide.”

Newsom laid out a six-item framework that will guide how and when California will modify stay-at-home orders going forward. It includes questions about testing and hospital capacities that he says must be answered before the state moves from a population approach to an individual approach of virus suppression.

1) Expand testing to trace and track individual outbreaks and ensure the isolation and quarantine of those affected.

2) Protect vulnerable populations from infection and spread, most notably seniors, people who are…