It is Newsom’s first action following two weeks of protests across the country after the death of George Floyd, who died on Memorial Day after a police officer put his knee on his neck for several minutes.
Demonstrations are expected to take place Long Beach City College and Harvey Milk Park, among other locations, on Friday.
On Thursday morning, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said his agency would not enforce any more curfews.
Long Beach so far has not seen large protests, but details of a 3 p.m. demonstration on Sunday at police headquarters Downtown were circulating on social media.
Los Angeles County has been held back from seeking a variance thanks to its position as a coronavirus hot spot, being home to roughly half of all the state’s cases and deaths from COVID-19.
California health officials today gave the go-ahead for counties to reopen in-store retail shopping statewide, a major step in California’s emergence from shutdown orders issued in March to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
The interchange of the 605 Freeway at Katella Avenuewill be designated the United States Army Sergeant Thomas R. MacPherson Memorial Interchange, according to Laura Herzog of honoringourfallen.org.
At least 140 employees at the plant have tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus over the past few months, after a cluster of six cases were discovered in the plant’s ham deboning department in mid-April.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles County—which has a quarter of the state’s nearly 40 million residents and accounts for half of its COVID-19 cases—has not met standards to reopen more businesses.
The changes came as county officials braced for Memorial Day weekend that could again challenge residents’ resolve to adhere to stay-at-home restrictions.
