On Monday, California announced its first step towards easing down the lockdown situation designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, allowing retail stores to restore to function from this week, but with some restrictions.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said that the nation’s most populous U.S. state would allow some relaxation on lockdown to a few counties if they met the required testing and protection guidelines.

At his routined coronavirus briefing, Newsom said, “This is an optimistic day, as we see a little bit of a ray of sunshine.”

Newsom said he had loosened the sweeping restriction that was imposed on March 19 because more than 25,000 people were getting tested for the virus per day, and the new cases of COVID-19 were not surging.

California has recorded close to 55,000 positive coronavirus cases as of now, and almost 2,215 people in the state lost their lives to this deadly pandemic.

As per the governor’s new orders, effective from coming Friday, if there is no big rise in the new cases of COVID-19, most retail businesses can restore to function with social distancing modifications.

Newsom said that these social distancing modifications would be spelled out on Thursday. However, he added that he would request “low-risk” stores selling items such as books, clothes, music, and toys to provide curbside pickup by customers.