S.F. heading off watch list, but business stays shackled
San Francisco is meeting local metrics for controlling its coronavirus outbreak and likely will come off the state watch list as early as Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a noon briefing Wednesday.
Falling off the list will not have any immediate effect, state officials said. Counties that have been on the list for at least three consecutive days are subject to a state order that forbids them from opening most indoor businesses and activities. For now, counties must abide by that ban even after they come off the list.
Newsom said he expects to provide further guidance next week about how the state will begin to reopen the economy again.
The state uses several metrics — including new cases, the percentage of tests coming back positive, hospitalization numbers, and hospital and intensive care capacity — to determine whether a county outbreak is under control or needs closer monitoring. As cases surged statewide in June and July, almost all counties ended up on the watch list, meaning they were missing one or more of the metrics.
As of Wednesday, 40 of 58 California counties — representing the vast majority of the state population — are on the watch list. All nine Bay Area counties have been on the list since July 29, and most for several weeks before that.
On Tuesday, Napa County became the first in the region to once again meet state thresholds; it could fall off the watch list Thursday. San Francisco appeared to be meeting thresholds as of Wednesday morning. Only three counties, Placer, San Diego and Santa Cruz, have been taken off the watch list so far.
Counties on the watch list are not allowed to open gyms, places of worship, nonessential offices, shopping malls or indoor personal services such as hair and nail salons and barbershops. Statewide, all bars are closed along with indoor dining.
In addition, counties on the watch list are not allowed to open inperson education without a waiver. Counties must be off the the list for 14 consecutive days to reopen schools.
Going forward, Newsom said Wednesday that his administration was working with local public health officials to finalize new reopening guidelines.
He hinted that the plan would include a more formal timeline for resuming operations in various sectors of the economy. Based on recommendations from epidemiologists, he said, the state will likely require at least 14 to 21 days before counties could move from one stage of the process to the next, giving the state time to monitor the effects on the spread of the virus.
“We deeply desire to reopen this economy fully and we deeply recognize the stress that businesses are under,” Newsom said. “If you do it, you have to do it very judiciously, very thoughtfully, and so, a deeper emphasis on how to do it, the modifications and the expectations that are needed from all of us to do it in a way that’s sustainable, not just episodic.”
“We deeply desire to reopen this economy fully and ... recognize the stress that businesses are under.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom