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San Francisco restaurants will have to close their dining rooms again. The newly reopened Santa Cruz Beach promenade must close. Fewer customers will be allowed inside Contra Costa County stores.
These are just some of the ramifications of a day in which state and local authorities decided to reimpose restrictions on businesses and other public functions across much of the Bay Area in the face of a further rise in infections. coronavirus.
And with an increase in cases locally and nationally, raising concerns about a potentially devastating fall and winter wave, more of California may soon see the return of tighter limits meant to stop the spread of the deadly disease.
State health officials announced on Tuesday that rising rates of new coronavirus cases in 11 counties in the state, including Contra Costa and Santa Cruz, had prompted them to move those areas to a higher classification. restrictive in California’s color-coded reopening plan.
Two weeks after reaching the orange level indicating a “moderate” spread of COVID-19, Contra Costa and Santa Cruz fell back to the red level for a “substantial” spread. Other Bay Area counties may soon follow.
Meanwhile, San Francisco officials have announced they are closing restaurants indoors starting on Saturday in an attempt to avoid what they called a worrying increase in new cases – even if the city remains in the least restrictive yellow level in the state, which is considered “minimal” spread.
“If we don’t turn this around, our fall push will outpace our summer push,” said San Francisco Director of Public Health Dr. Grant Colfax.
It was a “big decision” for George Chen, executive chef of San Francisco’s restaurant and market complex, China Live. Chen said he fully appreciates the severity of the pandemic and the need for health action, but is disappointed that he believes he can safely operate China Live’s Eight Tables fine dining restaurant, which has reopened the last week.
“We just brought people back,” Chen said. “We have a full reservation sheet for this weekend, and now everything is closed.”
In a statement Tuesday, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association urged city officials and Congress to provide financial support to help keep restaurants and their workers afloat during the pandemic.
Dining is half of China Live’s business, Chen said. He plans to keep the paid employees of Eight Tables and try to find work for his hourly workers, but he added, “If you have 50% less business, you have to move someone.”
The indoor activities of restaurants, places of worship, lounges and other establishments can continue under the new designation of the counties of Santa Cruz and Contra Costa, but with reduced capacities. Amusement parks like the Boardwalk, which reopened this weekend, will have to close.
Until recently, much of the state gradually progressed to less restrictive levels, without retreating. But rising coronavirus infection rates across much of California indicate others may soon see tighter restrictions – if current trends continue, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr Mark Ghaly, warned that half of the state’s counties would be moved to more restrictive levels by next week.
“Compared to the lows we’ve experienced over the past two months,” Ghaly said, “we’re definitely seeing an upward trajectory almost across the state.”
State data released on Tuesday shows Santa Clara County is among those who could face tighter state restrictions next week – currently in the amber level, the county’s rate of new cases in in the last seven days is high enough to send it back into the red. level if this measurement does not improve. And San Francisco’s case rate is high enough to land in the orange level next week.
So far, California has not seen an outbreak of new cases as severe as most of the country, especially the Midwest. Yet the seven-day average of the share of coronavirus tests that come back positive in California, seen as a key metric for the spread of the virus, reached its highest level since the first week of September, 4.2%, in full percentage point increase over the past week.
The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus has increased by 31.6% in the past 14 days and the number of people treated in intensive care units has increased by 29.6% during the same period, Ghaly said Tuesday.
Some counties have traced spikes in new cases in indoor dining or church services, Ghaly said, but a common theme across the state has been private gatherings such as backyard barbecues and other relatively small. Even as they acknowledged public fatigue after nearly eight months of coronavirus restrictions, and as Thanksgiving set to increase people’s desire to spend time with friends and family, officials of the State begged residents to avoid these kinds of gatherings.
“We tend to let our guard down. We think it’s safe because we know people even though we haven’t seen them for a while, ”Ghaly said. “These kinds of actions, we know, increase the risks.”
Editor Evan Webeck contributed reporting.
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