SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Newsom today announced his plan to implement phase two in his response to COVID-19 including the slow opening of the economy again and working to open beaches.

Newsom reiterated that the health indicator is directing guidelines and decision making within how he will respond and open up California in the safest way possible.

Newsom also announced his work with local officials to soon open beaches with strict guidelines in Orange County, Huntington Beach, Dana Point and Seal Beach.

Guidelines for small businesses will be released Thursday with strict strategies to maintain the health and safety of employees and customers to these businesses, allowing some small businesses to open as early as Friday.

In phase two nothing has been more important than getting the right amount of PPE for these businesses to open and be adequately sanitized.

As of today, 14.2 million procedural masks have been distributed, with 19.3 million masks currently in inventory tagged to be distributed in the next few weeks.

Newsom's prioritization in regard to small businesses is with loan assistance.

His next concern is unemployment insurance. As of today he announced upwards of 10 billion dollars have already been distributed since March and roughly 4.1 million people have filed since March 12.

We won't reach the normal we are used to, but a new normal with adaptations and modifications in place for the health and safety of California residents.

Lastly, Newsom updated the numbers for deaths, hospitalizations and positive cases.

In the last 24 hours there have been 63 additional lives lost, positive tests have come in at 1,275 across the state of California.

100,000 people have been tested in the last three days, bringing the number of people tested to 780,000.

Hospitalizations have increased by 2.6% and the number of individuals in the ICU has decreased by 1.9%.