San Francisco and Santa Clara counties will soon be the next counties in California to enter the orange reopening level, further easing restrictions for more companies.
The changes in the orange layer are expected to take effect on Wednesday.
“San Francisco’s health indicators continue to improve, with cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations falling steadily,” said the San Francisco COVID Command Center in a statement.
COVID Command Center officials have warned residents that while the decline in coronavirus cases is encouraging, variants remain a concern.
“San Francisco continues to take health precautions when reopening. We are aligning ourselves with state guidelines as much as possible, but we will add specific safeguards to minimize the risk of spreading the virus. Our approach continues to focus on expanding both outdoor activities as possible as a safer environment than indoors, “the authorities said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a Santa Clara County spokesman told the NBC Bay Area on Sunday that his county released orange belt numbers last week and if the numbers remain in that belt until Tuesday, the county will switch to the orange belt on Wednesday.
In the orange layer, offices can reopen for face-to-face working hours of up to 25% of capacity and maintaining 25% of capacity in conference and meeting rooms.
Other new rules include museums, zoos and aquariums that open up to 50% of internal capacity, movie theaters can reopen with a capacity of less than 50% or 200 people and shopping malls can expand to 50% of capacity.
When the change happens, San Francisco and Santa Clara will join San Mateo as the second and third counties in the Bay Area to move to the orange layer.
All other counties in the Bay Area are currently in the red layer.