Newsom charges ahead as California virus cases reach new record

“Now we’re in the land of tradeoffs. Lessening the lockdown is an economic and political necessity, but it’s going to result in more cases,” said Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine. As for what metrics should be used to trigger closures, Newsom relies heavily on what’s called the “positivity rate,” or the percentage of positive cases, which accounts for the state’s increasing tests.