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Most California counties will have the opportunity to reopen a slew of new businesses like in-store retail and hairdressers within the next few weeks, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.

The latest loosening of the statewide stay-at-home order could sweep across 53 of California’s 58 counties, Newsom said in his daily news briefing, but would depend on those counties fulfilling various criteria, such as no more than a 5% weekly increase in hospitalizations and maintaining a positive test rate of less than 8% countywide.

“This is an important period of time,” Newsom said. “We’re moving into an important few weeks ahead of us and we’re going to see a lot more activity. Let’s just make sure we do it thoughtfully and strategically.”

During the same briefing, Newsom also announced that professional sporting events could resume as early as the first week of June but without any spectators in the stadiums.

The new decisions come after weeks of local leaders pushing back on Newsom for the statewide restrictions that have now lasted nine weeks and forced millions of residents to file for unemployment. Many have argued that conditions have improved to a level that no longer warrants such drastic measures.

Over the last two weeks, the state has seen a “steady rate of decline” in coronavirus indicators, including a 7.5% decline in hospitalizations for COVID-19 patients and a 8.7% decline in patients in the intensive care units, Newsom said.

Those “encouraging” numbers led to the state’s decision to unveil new indicators for counties looking to push further into the second of four stages toward reopening, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services.

Aside from hospitalization and positive rates — which also include adjustments for counties with fewer cases and hospitalizations — counties will be required to attest that they are working closely with skilled nursing facilities, can protect their essential workforce and have clear plans to reinstate restrictions if hospitalizations or cases creep up again.

“If we see a sudden surge in hospitalizations or a number of increase in cases throughout a county, we want to make sure that the counties have thoughtful plans to potentially reinstitute parts of the stay-at-home order that we’re loosening or relaxing today and to meet the needs of the resident in their counites,” Ghaly said.

The original standard for moving into phase two, announced by the state Department of Public Health less than two weeks ago, restricted counties from loosening the stay-at-home rules if there had been more than one case per 10,000 residents in the prior two weeks and even a single COVID-19 related death during that time frame. Monday’s announcement means that counties will no longer be thwarted from loosening based on their number of COVID-19 deaths.

Already as of Monday, 24 counties in California have received approval from the state to open up their communities further than the statewide order currently allows. Newsom declined to name which counties may not be eligible for broader reopening but said that Los Angeles and Tulare counties may choose not to.

As for the Bay Area, Newsom emphasized that county health orders still reign supreme.

“The Bay Area is in a different position than some parts of the state,” Newsom said. “They can move at their own pace based on their own local conditions, but now we are broadening the pace to which people can enter into phase two.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.