Santa Clara County – the Silicon Valley region that is home to cities like Palo Alto, San Jose and Campbell – is open for outdoor dining starting Monday, January 25th. Just like the city of Berkeley, which, although located in Alameda County, has its own health department. They are the last two counties in the Bay Area to announce the resumption of outdoor dining, on the same day that Governor Gavin Newsom shocked the state of California by announcing that, despite worrying developments like a new variant of COVID-19 and In the face of continuing challenges with vaccination efforts, the regional seven-week home stay order has been lifted, allowing activities such as dinner at the table to resume.
Marin County was one of the first to announce that it would end its dinner weeks just for travel and immediately open al fresco dining. At a news conference on Monday, San Francisco announced that it would also resume dining al fresco – but not until Thursday, January 28, and only under strict restrictions, including a 10-day quarantine for travelers and a touch. to collect from 22h to 5h for the whole city.
According to Berkeleyside, although Alameda County has not yet made an official announcement, Berkeley city spokesman Matthai Chakko “said that Berkeley will not impose any additional restrictions on activities or businesses allowed under the purple layer”. In other words, outdoor dining can resume immediately, without the kinds of additional restrictions applied by San Francisco. Like the rest of the Bay Area, Berkeley and Santa Clara are currently on the purple (“generalized risk”) level of the state’s color-coded reopening plan, which requires bars without food to remain closed and prohibits indoor dining, but allows activities like tourism and outdoor dinners to resume.
In a press release sent on Monday afternoon, authorities in the Country of Santa Clara also said that “outdoor dinners can be resumed today” and do not appear to have added any of their own rules on the activity. Like San Francisco, Santa Clara has a mandatory travel order that will remain in effect, officials say, meaning that anyone traveling 150 miles to or from the region must be fully quarantined for 10 days.
Like her fellow health officials, Santa Clara County Health Officer and Director of Public Health, Sarah Cody, took a moderate approach to the reopening. “Santa Clara County continues to experience very high transmission rates for COVID-19,” Cody said in a statement. “I encourage all residents to remain vigilant, wear a mask whenever you leave the house, maintain a distance of at least 6 feet from anyone outside your home and get vaccinated when it is your turn.”