Gov. Gavin Newsom denied San Luis Obispo County’s request to implement the START Guide and begin phased reopening of the county, Emergency Services Director Wade Horton said.
The county remains under state control and must follow the state’s timeline for reopening.
“I am disappointed by this outcome,” Horton said.
San Luis Obispo County does not plan to renew the shelter-at-home order which expires May 16, according to County Public Health. Instead, the county will only be under the state-wide stay-at-home order.
Churches, wineries, salons and barbershops will not be opening in stage two according to Newsom’s Resilience Roadmap.
Stage two of the Resilience Roadmap allowed curbside retail to open today, but this has already been allowed in SLO county to some extent.
Counties cannot begin reopening if there has been one death in the past 14 days, according to current state guidelines.
“Something could happen tomorrow and would suddenly mean we can’t move forward with going back to business,” County Health Officer Penny Borenstein said.
The county expanded testing this week, with one new case today.
“It’s reassuring to us that with the additional testing we have not seen increased numbers of positive cases,” Borenstein said.
The county recommends wearing masks in situations when distancing is not possible, but masks are not in place of social distancing.