Facing a virulent new strain of coronavirus, California’s pandemic outbreak is so out of control that public officials have had to lift air pollution regulations in order to accomodate a spike in cremations. Meanwhile, public opinion data shows widespread support for keeping businesses closed to halt the outbreak.

In response to the emergency, Democratic governor Gavin Newsom is lifting stay-at-home restrictions, removing essential workers from the state’s vaccine priority list, and championing a complex deal that extends the state’s expiring partial eviction moratorium but still allows landlords to pursue evictions. Newsom has long insisted his decisions are “lead by data and science” — but his moves come just as new studies show that keeping workers out of the workplace and banning evictions play pivotal roles in reducing the spread of the deadly virus.

The first study, from University of Pennsylvania researchers, found that workers deemed essential and required to go to their workplaces have a 55 percent higher chance of being infected than those staying home. Family members and roommates living with essential workers also have a significantly higher chance of being infected. The data — gleaned from health insurance records in the Philadelphia area — builds on a previous University of Alabama research documenting how stay-at-home orders likely reduced the virus spread during the spring of 2020.