Two Fresno County supervisors said Monday afternoon they’re hopeful the county can meet new guidelines to reopen announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“I think we’ll be able to meet them,” said board chairman Buddy Mendes. “I think we will be opening up — allowing restaurants, barbers and beauticians to get back to work. Many barbers and beauticians have been working at home. They might as well work where we can see them.”

Supervisor Steve Brandau said that county leaders “are very hopeful” of meeting the state’s new criteria.

“We are resubmitting documents addressing (the governor’s) new parameters,” Brandau said.

During his daily briefing Monday, Newsom said that he expected 53 of the state’s 58 counties to move forward on reopening economies shackled by his COVID-19 stay-at-home order.

Initially, county leaders hoped to learn the fate of their reopening effort as early as this afternoon, Brandau said, but the state canceled a planned call with the county’s public health team.

LA, Tulare, Kings Counties Might Have to Wait

Newsom didn’t say which five counties he expected to fall short on the latest guidelines. But he pointed to Los Angeles, Kings, and Tulare counties as being among those facing challenges. He cited Tulare due to cases at skilled nursing facilities and Kings because of infections at meatpacking plants.

Los Angeles County, the state’s most populous and with the most coronavirus cases, faces broader challenges, Newsom said.

“Just because we’re creating the capacity and the availability to move into Phase 2 doesn’t mean that every county is ready,” Newsom said. “Los Angeles County, as an example, I imagine will be cautious if that respect.”

The New Criteria

The new criteria eliminate requirements that a county have zero deaths and no more than than one case per 10,000 residents over a two-week period. Instead, counties must have no more than 25 cases per 100,000 residents or no higher than an 8% positive rate among people testing for the coronavirus.

They also must have no higher than a 5% increase in hospitalizations over a seven-day period or fewer than 20 hospitalizations total over 14 days. The latter ensures that small counties don’t get penalized for one or two extra hospitalizations.

Other criteria on hospital capacity, testing and tracing remain in place.

Mendes said that he thinks Newsom is relaxing some of his previously hard-and-fast guidelines because California has ample ICU capacity to absorb a surge in COVID-19 infected individuals with serious illnesses.

In addition, the governor has faced increasing pressure from officials up and down the state to allow more businesses to reopen and get the economy moving again.