California relaxes some criteria for reopening

(KION and AP) Watch Gov. Newsom's news conference here.

California is relaxing some of its reopening criteria and that could mean most of the state may soon be offering services such as dining at restaurants.

The criteria announced Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom applies to counties that want to reopen faster than the state.

Twenty-four mainly rural counties already have won approval under the old standards.

The changes eliminate requirements that a county have zero deaths and no more than one case per 10,000 residents over 14 days. Now counties do not have to meet a threshold for deaths. They can have no more than 25 cases per 100,000 residents.

UPDATE 5/18/2020 12:30 p.m. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that he is making modifications to current guidelines to allow counties to potentially go deeper into Stage 2 of reopening.

He said the changes go into effect immediately. Counties will be able to go at their own pace, but Newsom said he believes that roughly 53 of the state's 58 counties will be eligible to move ahead.

This is a developing story. Keep checking back for updates.

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According to the California Department of Public Health, there were nearly 79,000 confirmed cases statewide as of May 16 and 3,261 deaths.