AceShowbiz - California Governor Gavin Newsom has joined forces with Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Hollywood hotshots for a new coronavirus task force.

The leader of the West Coast U.S. state announced on Friday, April 17, 2020 he has launched an advisory council aimed at planning the region's economic revival that includes former Governor and movie star Schwarzenegger, Disney Chairman Bob Iger, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and other business heavyweights.

Billionaire and former Democratic 2020 presidential challenger Tom Steyer will lead the initiative with Newsom's chief of staff Ann O'Leary in a bid to relaunch California's economy safely following enforced lockdown measures for the coronavirus pandemic.

"We will try to come up with a recovery plan that is worthy of California's past and pushes us to a better future and remedies some of the injustices which this COVID-19 pandemic have revealed in our society," Steyer said during the press conference.

The advisory panel will meet twice a month for the remainder of the year and updates will be provided every Wednesday starting next week, April 22, 2020.

The new economic recovery task force comes as 2.7 million Californians filed for unemployment after losing their jobs since the state enforced stay-at-home orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March.

Prior to the public health crisis, California boasted the fifth largest economy in the world.