LOS ANGELES (CNS) - In an announcement that will bring relief to business owners in the Southland and across the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday California's stay-at-home order will be eased later this week, allowing some "lower-risk'' retail stores to reopen with restricted operations.

Newsom said the state on Thursday will release guidelines that applicable businesses will have to follow to reopen, possibly as early as Friday, and offer curbside pickup of goods.

"As early as the end of this week, you will have the capacity as a retailer with the modifications and the guidelines we set forth on Thursday to begin to reopen for pickup: clothing, book stores, music, toys, sporting goods stores, florists -- with Mothers Day coming up,'' Newsom said.

The relaxed rules will also allow some manufacturing businesses that support the retail outlets to reopen, he said. The move will not apply to offices or shopping malls.

Newsom said the state will also provide some authority for individual counties to develop additional guidelines in conjunction with the state that could allow additional types of businesses to reopen, with appropriate operating modifications.

"Once that is done, we need active monitoring, surveillance, to make sure the disease is not spreading,'' he said. "If it is, one of the criteria is a trigger to re-modify the changes, so we just want folks to know we need to toggle back and forth here on the basis of what's happening in those communities.

"This is a very positive sign and it's happened only for one reason: the data says it can happen,'' he said. "But we recognize as we begin to modify, behaviors modify, and possible community spread may occur. If that's the case and we do not have the capacity to control that spread, to trace that spread, to track that spread, isolate individuals when they've been in contact with COVID-19, we will have to make modifications anew.''