Officials in San Mateo County announced Saturday that certain indoor businesses and activities must shut down or move to outdoor operations beginning Sunday.
The state gave the order due to the county being on California's COVID-19 watchlist for three days.
The businesses affected include gyms and fitness centers, churches, hair salons, barber shops, nail salons and shopping malls.
Officials say this order will be in effect beginning at 12:01 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 2.
Businesses offering tattoos, piercings and electrolysis may not be operated outdoors and must close.
The state informed the county Saturday afternoon that specific indoor businesses must cease operations unless they can be modified to operate outside or by pic-up.
Businesses should visit the state website for industry guidance.
San Mateo County was the last Bay Area county to join California's watchlist. Information about San Mateo County's response to COVID-19 is at www.smcgov.org. Information on the city's of Menlo Park's response, including which city facilities are open, can be found here.
Comments
Menlo Park: Park Forest
on Aug 2, 2020 at 8:53 pm
on Aug 2, 2020 at 8:53 pm
With the current level of coronavirus infection in San Mateo County and the Bay Area we should all be going back to a full shelter in place. We cannot stop the virus with this rate of infection, the low rate of quick turn around testing, and minimal contact tracing.
“Is there any logical reasons for keeping Costco with cases open and closing businesses that have no cases?” you may ask. Yes – it is a risk/benefit calculation.
What is being kept open are essential business and those businesses are required to enforce mask and social distancing to minimize the risk of transmission. People have to eat but we do not have to go to the gym or to the hair salon.
The U.S. is now having one preventable death every minute. Why has that somehow become acceptable?
The evidence is clear that the more human interacting, particularly indoors, the greater the risk of infection. We can learn both from other countries/states successes and from history.
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Or we can continue to have more people get sick and die.
France is an excellent example of a poor start followed by a lockdown and a very careful controlled reopening with extensive testing and tracing:
“But while the outbreak occurred primarily in only two parts of France, French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a severe, nationwide lockdown on March 16. And during that lockdown, the government put extensive testing and contact tracing in place. Almost exactly two months later, France mostly reopened. And for the last two and a half months, the country has functioned in a primarily open status with around 500 new cases per day and only about 450 deaths in the last month.” Read the full story here.
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The U.S. on the other hand paid the price of a patchy lockdown but received none of the benefits because the necessary and promised testing and tracing has not occurred.
A blindfolded public health system cannot stop this virus.