SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed ahead for the first time Friday to the next phase of California’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying his administration is developing plans to get “back to some semblance of normalcy” as the disease appears to spread more slowly than the state projected.

“We have detailed strategies that we’re working on that we’re very close to making public,” Newsom said at a news conference.

But he pleaded for a “few more weeks” of patience for the state to assess the pandemic before easing up on social distancing guidelines, ahead of a holiday weekend in which Californians would ordinarily pack churches, visit families and attend egg hunts for Easter.

“We are not just along for the ride as it relates to experiencing the future. The future happens inside of us,” the governor said. “Let’s continue to hold the line.”

Coronavirus infections in California increased to more than 19,400 by Friday. Many of the new cases are emerging at nursing homes and senior care facilities, a growing outbreak among the population at highest risk of serious health effects from the virus. Newsom said that had become a “top priority of our efforts.”

Overall hospitalizations, however, are trending below projections from a state model, which estimated that California would need an extra 50,000 hospital beds during the peak of the virus in May.

There were 2,897 hospitalized coronavirus patients on Friday, Newsom said, though he did not specify how many the state was expecting at this point. The governor’s office could not immediately provide a figure.

Mark Ghaly, the state health and human services secretary, said California is on “the better case scenario of what we were always hoping for” and that the number of hospitalizations may not ultimately surge much higher than it is now. But he said that trend will continue only if people don’t “lose the focus on physical distancing.”

“This is actually signaling to us that our peak may not end up being as high as we actually planned around and expected,” Ghaly said.

Meanwhile, the state is closely monitoring 191 nursing homes where 1,266 patients and staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus. An additional 370 people at 94 senior care facilities have also been infected.

The virus has ripped through several nursing homes in the Bay Area, infecting hundreds and killing dozens at homes in Hayward, Castro Valley and Orinda, and at the city-run Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco.

Newsom said the state has acquired hundreds of beds at seven locations where nursing home residents who have been exposed to or tested positive for the coronavirus could quarantine. The Mercy, the 1,000-bed naval hospital ship that has largely sat empty since it was sent to Los Angeles last month to assist with treating patients, will also take in seniors who are not infected to “decompress” nursing homes that have become hot spots for the virus, the governor said.

The Campus for Jewish Living, a 378-bed nursing home in San Francisco, notified residents last week that it could begin accepting coronavirus patients who no longer need to be hospitalized. The patients would be in separate wing of its building, but the announcement still concerned advocates and family members who feared the move would put residents at risk.

Newsom said Friday that he was trying to keep seniors who do not need acute care out of hospitals, which “have their own challenges as it relates to infection.”

The governor also said the state would distribute an additional 200,000 sets of gloves and 200,000 masks to nursing homes that are running out of personal protective equipment, and deploy 600 nurses to help in facilities with positive cases.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff