Outdoor dining can resume in San Francisco starting on Thursday, now that the number of COVID cases is decreasing, the state has suspended regional home-stay requests that began more than a month ago.
Exact details about the new public health orders were given at an afternoon news conference, but Mayor London Breed anticipated the announcement with a tweet on Monday morning saying, “We will be moving forward with some limited reopenings, including open air meals. free and personal services. “
Given the rainstorms that are approaching this week and the fact that many businesses went into hibernation during the holidays, it is likely that restaurants will not throw tables on the sidewalk and in the parklets immediately, but it could happen soon!
Breed says he expects San Francisco to return to “Purple” tier status, along with most other counties in the state, as daily case totals remain high here and elsewhere. But as hospital bed capacity increases and an expected increase related to New Year celebrations does not materialize, life in much of the state will soon be taking another step toward normality.
“I am excited that we can do this and I know that it will provide some relief for small businesses and workers who have been really struggling for months,” said Breed. “But this pandemic is not over. We have to keep doing the things we know to help keep our cases in check. ”
At the city’s press conference in the afternoon, Breed further detailed the city’s updated requests, which include allowing internal and external personal services, such as barber shops, hairdressers, massage rooms and manicure salons, to be resumed with the mandatory use of a mask. in all moments.
Restaurants can resume outdoor dining starting on Thursday, January 28 (or after it stops raining), but the tables must be six meters away again, accommodating a maximum of six people at each table, at most two separate families.
Indoor gym in boutique studios can be resumed with individual training, but it appears that the gyms will not reopen yet until SF returns to the “Red” level.
Breed further encourages everyone to continue wearing masks in public, limiting all social gatherings outdoors, and keeping any indoor meeting short and well-ventilated.
I am excited that we can do this and I know that it will provide some relief to small businesses and workers who have been really struggling for months.
But that pandemic is not over. We need to keep doing the things we know to help keep our cases under control.
– London Breed (@LondonBreed) January 25, 2021
San Francisco hotels and Airbnbs can resume acceptance from out-of-town guests, however, the mandatory 10-day quarantine for travelers remains in effect, meaning that anyone making a stay reservation will need to be in the city for more than 10 days – and remain kidnapped for the first 1st.
Supermarkets are being allowed to increase the maximum capacity to 50% of the normal, from 35%.
In addition, the city is leaving a curfew at 10pm for all non-essential activities – but, as we said when the curfew came into effect in December, this does not affect commercial activity much, since most restaurants were stopping serving around 9pm anyway.
Laurie Thomas, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, told Examiner that the 10 pm curfew will have an adverse effect on restaurants going forward, because they “will not be realistically able to sit after 8 pm to 8:30 pm” in order to to accomplish. This will limit the number of seats they can accommodate per night, but it still may not be drastically different from what we saw in the fall.
See the full press conference below.
Related: Newsom raises regional home stay requests as bed capacity increases
Photo: Um.ma’s backyard at sunset, courtesy of Um.ma
This post was updated with information from the press conference at 1:15 pm in the city.