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After sticking with some of the strictest stay-at-home orders in California to curb the spread of coronavirus, the entire Bay Area is advancing in lockstep through the second phase of reopening the state by allowing curbside retail pickup to start on Friday.
The new directive, signed Monday by six public health officials in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties and the city of Berkeley, replaces one issued just two weeks ago that permitted construction and other outdoor businesses and activities to resume.
“COVID-19 and the measures we’ve taken to prevent the spread have profoundly disrupted the lives of every single member of our community,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody said during a news conference on Monday. “However, our collective effort has significantly reduced the spread in our county, and we now have a little bit of headroom to cautiously take another step forward.”
The new local order, which marks the second loosening of the region’s mandate imposed in mid-March, falls largely in line with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s guidelines for reopening the state. It places the region’s 8 million residents firmly in the second of four phases in Newsom’s plan, and all Bay Area counties on the same page, after San Mateo and San Francisco counties issued similar guidance last week.
The Bay Area’s decision came within hours of Newsom’s refining the criteria for counties to plunge deeper into phase 2 of reopening, such as no more than a 5% weekly increase in hospitalizations and a positive COVID-19 test rate of less than 8% countywide.
Given the current indicators, the governor said 53 of the state’s 58 counties could start allowing a slew of business sectors to reopen, including in-store retail and hair salons, in several weeks.
“This is an important period of time,” Newsom said. “We’re moving into an important few weeks ahead of us, and we’re going to see a lot more activity. Let’s just make sure we do it thoughtfully and strategically.”
Spectator-free sporting events could even resume by the first week of June, with some caveats. And, Newsom said, the state is “within a few weeks of meaningful modifications” involving places of religious worship.
“We are working overtime with leaders in the community to come up with guidelines and restore that capacity,” he said.
[ FAQ: What does it mean to enter ‘Phase 2’? Which parts of the state qualify? ]
In the Bay Area, storefront and curbside retail pickup will be allowed to resume on Friday, along with the activities of associated manufacturing, logistics and warehousing businesses that support retail.
Under the regionwide order, stores are prohibited from moving their products outside for display or sale, and customers must order and pay for products online or over the phone. Businesses are permitted to operate only with one employee per 300 square feet unless the individuals are from the same household.
The new regulations only apply to retail stores with direct access to an adjacent sidewalk or outdoor pedestrian walkway, street or parking lot. Stores in an enclosed indoor shopping center or mall must remain closed.
Outdoor museums, historical sites and publicly accessible gardens also are permitted to open their doors to visitors. And drive-through celebrations, parades and graduations are permitted across the region, as long as people ride solely in cars with members of their household and do not leave their vehicles. That new guidance comes less than two weeks after Santa Clara County explicitly banned car parades.
Despite the governor’s announcement Monday, different areas in the state are permitted to move at their own pace. In the Bay Area, where stricter regulations have been in place since the very beginning of the pandemic, in-person dining and shopping will have to wait, as well as other higher-risk businesses, such as gyms and bars, and any gatherings outside a person’s immediate household.
Santa Clara County, which once accounted for the most cases in the state, now has just 3% of the cases and 4% of the deaths statewide, according to Cody, and with more than double the number of tests conducted in the county since the middle of March, the rate of positive tests has declined from 9% to 1.5%.
“We have flattened the curve here in Santa Clara County like nowhere else in the country, and its because of what everyone has done,” Cody said.
“We’re sort of picking off the menu that the state has offered as well as adding some additional local guardrails to keep our community safe,” Cody said. “We understand the urgency, but we don’t want to have to go backward.”
But even as the Bay Area takes another modest step toward reopening its devastated economy, some business owners aren’t celebrating just yet.
Outdoor gear store Stevens Creek Surplus has remained open during the stay-at-home order for curbside pickup because of the construction- and restaurant-related products available in the store. But without allowing customers to come into the store, assistant manager Mustafa Makati said it has been difficult to adapt to the logistical challenges of restricting the foot traffic the store typically relies on.
“A lot of customers are not happy because they want to come in and browse,” Makati said. “It’s not easy. It’s a lot of burden for two or three employees going back and forth, back and forth.”
As of Monday, Santa Clara County had confirmed 2,470 cases of COVID-19, Alameda County 2,457, San Francisco 2,131, San Mateo County 1,671 and Contra Costa County 1,155.
Staff writers Evan Webeck and Vytas Mazeika contributed reporting.