Orange County bars, gyms, hair salons and barbershops can begin reopening next Friday after Gov. Gavin Newsom eased some statewide restrictions during the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

“We’re looking forward to putting out additional guidelines today,” Newsom said at a Friday news conference. 

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He said it’s up to county health officers if they want to allow the businesses to reopen or not. 

“We put on a document that is a how document, but not a when,” Newsom said. 

Meanwhile, OC saw its biggest increase in new cases on a single day at 296 on Friday.

The virus has now killed 174 people out of 7,064 confirmed cases, according to updated County numbers. There were also 283 people hospitalized, including 123 in intensive care units. Just over 3,000 people have recovered and over 148,000 tests have been conducted throughout OC, which is home to roughly 3.2 million people. 

Last month, a series of protests happened throughout the County, including San Clemente and Huntington Beach. Protestors demanded most, if not all, business reopen. 

Questions about enforcing the business closures also surfaced, but County health officials publicly said they would follow state law. 

Now Supervisors Don Wagner and Michelle Steel are pushing back against County Health Officer Dr. Nichole Quick’s mask order, which requires residents wear a mask in public if they can’t maintain six-foot physical distancing from other people. 

Quick issued the order nearly two weeks ago, shortly after the state gave OC the green light to begin reopening dine-in restaurants and shopping malls. 

Since then, Quick has not been publicly seen and has instead phone into Supervisors meetings following a series of threats. Steel classified one of the threats as “a death threat.” 

The business closures have hit OC and the state hard. 

City officials throughout OC are grappling with putting together new budgets that saw significant decreases to sales tax revenue because of the closures. 

Newsom has previously said he expects a roughly 25 percent unemployment rate at some point this year.

Here’s the latest on the virus numbers across Orange County from county data:

Spencer Custodio is a Voice of OC staff reporter. You can reach him at scustodio@voiceofoc.org. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio.

Digital Editor Sonya Quick contributed to this story. You can reach her at squick@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @sonyanews.

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