SACRAMENTO—Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Feb. 25 all but 5 percent of California’s COVID-19 related executive orders would be lifted by the end of June while keeping the state of emergency declaration in place. “As we move the state’s recovery forward, we’ll continue to focus on scaling back provisions while maintaining essential testing, vaccination and health care system supports that ensure California has the needed tools and flexibility to strategically adapt our response for what lies ahead,” Newsom said in a statement. Newsom made 561 executive orders since the beginning of the pandemic. However, only 15 percent of the orders were in effect after Newsom rolled out in June 2021 the SMARTER Plan, another executive order focuses on the State’s response to the next phase of the pandemic and future outbreaks. The governor’s move on Friday stripped these executive orders down so only 5 percent remained—totaling 33 orders. Of those, …