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After three short weeks, restaurants inside are closed again in Alameda County as the state grapples with an increase in COVID-19 cases and the county and neighboring areas return to most restrictive step in state reopening guidelines.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that 40 counties, including Alameda County, would be placed in the purple level as a warning measure due to the rapid rise in the number of COVID-19 across the state.
This meant two steps back from the orange level for the region, which had allowed restaurants to resume dining indoors at 25% of capacity on October 23, after dining rooms had been closed since mid-March. . Under the updated guidelines, restaurants and bars that serve food will still be able to offer take out, deliveries and outside services.
The Berkeley health official released a new health order in line with county guidelines on Tuesday afternoon. Starting Wednesday, indoor activities will cease in restaurants, museums, galleries, cinemas, gymnasiums, places of worship and swimming pools. The order also contains an update on currently open businesses and their capacity limits.
Other services the city reopened indoors in September when Berkeley was in the purple and red bleachers, like hair and nail salons, will remain open, as will small cohort groups at schools across Berkeley. City and county health officials could again decide to be stricter than state guidelines if they so choose.
While Berkeley’s case rates remained lower than those in the county and state, city officials said on Tuesday that more than 10% of the city’s total cases since the start of the pandemic had been reported over the past two weeks. The current rate of positivity locally is 1.06% – up from previous weeks – with 17 new cases reported on Monday. Previous peaks were 20 cases on July 2 and 18 on September 20.
A Stanford University study released on November 10 points to unmasked indoor gatherings and indoor dining, in particular, as some of the riskier activities leading to the spread of COVID-19, and those responsible for local health officials who preventively shut down indoor meals last week cited the report.
“With the outbreak of cases, we face a critical threat to our community, our region and the state as a whole,” Lisa Hernandez, head of health at Berkeley, said in a statement, reiterating the importance of wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands and avoiding gatherings. “These state restrictions limit certain environments at high risk of propagation. But our own actions have a huge impact. “
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