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Leaders From 6 Rural NorCal Counties Urge Gov. Newsom To Lift Stay-At-Home Orders

YUBA CITY (CBS13) — Political leaders from six Northern California counties have sent an open letter to the governor urging him to lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders for their areas.

The politicians, like State Sen. Jim Nielsen and Asem. James Gallagher, argue that COVID-19 infection rates in these mostly rural counties have remained low.

"California is weathering this pandemic well. In the North State, we have even fewer infections than those in other regions of the state. We must re-open our economy so Californians can get back to work," Sen. Nielsen wrote in the letter.

The letter was signed by representatives from Butte, Colusa, Glen, Sutter, Tehama, and Yuba counties. There are more than 500,000 people who live in those counties, and the officials argue that there have only been 69 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Friday - with only one coronavirus patient in ICU care.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that there are six criteria he and state officials will be looking at when they decide to start peeling back the order. However, Newsom has warned that getting the state back to normal wouldn't be as easy as flipping a light switch.

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