San Francisco announced on Friday the drastic move of issuing a stay-at-home order ahead of the state’s schedule, which sparked a rush of closings and tougher measures starting Sunday. Five other Bay Area jurisdictions – Alameda Counties, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and Marin Counties, and the City of Berkeley – have taken the same step and are introducing similar ordinances.
San Francisco is urging people to stop shuffling, and the new ordinance puts an end to outdoor gatherings with friends. You are now only allowed to gather outside with members of your own household (out of three households). For example, if you want to take your children to a park for a picnic, it is allowed. But if you want to meet another family for a picnic in a park, this is not allowed.
Here’s a look at what’s open and closed in San Francisco. For a full overview and more details, see SF.gov.
The following must be closed:
- Personal services. This includes both internal and external operations for hairdressing and nail salons, hairdressers, tattoos, piercings, beauticians and massages.
- Outdoor dining. Indoor dining is already closed and all outdoor dining, including parklets, must be closed. Restaurants can remain open for delivery and take-away.
- Open-air museums, aquariums and zoos. Outdoor facilities or exhibits associated with these locations must be closed.
- Indoor gyms. Limited one-on-one personal training in gyms and fitness centers that was permitted indoors must stop, but can take place outdoors.
- Drive-in meetings. Drive-in cinemas and other performances in the context of a drive are not permitted.
- Outdoor playgrounds. This includes climbing frames and walls, slide swings, and sand pits.
- Outdoor family entertainment centers. These include skate parks, roller and ice rinks, batting cages, go-kart races and miniature golf must be closed.
- Open-air bus and boat operators. This includes outdoor excursions by boat or bus and fishing trips.
The following can remain open with restrictions:
- Schools. Those currently learning in person can continue. Elementary schools are considered for face-to-face learning with waiver approval.
- Outdoor botanical gardens and historical sites. These can remain open to visitors in accordance with public health guidelines.
- Low-contact retail. Service-oriented retail such as dog groomers, electronics repair services, and shoe repair services can only operate in a roadside context.
- Retail trade. All retail stores such as shopping malls, hardware stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, equipment rentals and specialty stores as well as standalone grocery stores need to reduce capacity to 20% and implement a metering system to maintain capacity. In fact, a company needs to assign a specific person on the staff to oversee the number of people in the facility.
- Hotels and accommodations. Reservations from essential workers are only accepted.
- Outdoor gyms. Gyms or outdoor fitness classes (such as boot camps, dance, yoga, tai chi, etc.) are limited to 12 people, including staff. Running groups are prohibited.
- Youth sports. These may only be operated outdoors without competitions or spectators and with strict requirements for social distancing and face covering.
- Adult recreation. Non-low-contact sports – golf, tennis, cucumber ball, and bocce – can continue outdoors but must be restricted to participants in the same household.
Newsom announced a new regional stay-at-home order on Thursday to keep local healthcare systems from collapsing under the weight of skyrocketing COVID-19 case numbers. Previous restrictions were based on the county’s infection rates.
The new ordinance divides the state into five large regions, restricting those with ICU bed capacity of less than 15%. On Thursday, Newsom said four regions – all but the San Francisco Bay Area – could hit that threshold “within a day or two.” But the state is allowing the regions to get the job done faster, and part of the Bay Area is now taking that step.
San Francisco’s new shutdown rules apply through Jan. 4, 2021. The city said in a statement that it depends on whether the “indicators show a consistent reduction in case rates and hospital stays for three people after a week of ordering.” additional weeks (a total of four weeks) and the ICU capacity is at least 25%. “
If SF hits the ICU capacity threshold of 15%, triggering the regional order and state mandate to stay at home, the region would continue these restrictions for at least three weeks from that point.
Hospital stays in California have almost quadrupled since mid-October and are now 9,948, of which 2,248 are in intensive care units. The Ministry of Health has reported 19,582 deaths since the pandemic began, including at least 220 healthcare workers. New COVID-19 cases have quadrupled daily in San Francisco for the past month. The city has an average of 142 new cases per day compared to 34 daily cases in late October.
Hospital stays in the city have tripled in the past week and are currently well on their way to running out of hospital beds by December 26th.
“We are in the middle of the worst increase in COVID-19 yet. It is weighing on health systems across the state of California and taxing our health care workers,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, SF Health Director. “We urgently need intervention now if we are to care for the sick in mid to late December. We don’t want your parents, spouse, child, grandparents or loved ones to need help and our hospitals have been too overwhelmed to handle it properly to supply. “
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
