California to let gyms, bars, day camps reopen
SACRAMENTO — California will allow day camps, bars, gyms, campgrounds and professional sports to begin reopening with modifications starting next Friday.
The state will release guidance later Friday for counties to follow to reopen a broad range of businesses that have been closed since mid-March because of concerns about spreading the Coronavirus, said Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services agency. It also includes must-anticipated guidance on the reopening this fall of schools, which have been shuttered for in-person learning since March.
The rules on schools and day camps will apply statewide. But only counties that have met certain thresholds on the number of cases, testing and preparedness will be allowed to start reopening the other sectors. Almost all of the state’s 58 counties have met those metrics. The state’s guidance will also include rules on hotels, casinos, museums, zoos and aquariums and the resumption of music, film and television production.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has been moving the state through a methodical fourstep process for reopening. The newly added guidance relates to businesses in “Phase 3.” Nail salons will not be included in the list, Ghaly said.
When students return to classrooms in the fall, things could look vastly different. In addition to requirements for physical distancing, the state plans to supply every school and childcare center with notouch thermometers, hand sanitizer, face shields for every teacher, cloth face coverings for staff and students and tight-fitting N-95 masks for health care professionals in schools.
California has already allowed most counties to reopen restaurants, hair salons, churches, and retail stores with modifications.
Guidelines on how to reopen schools have been highly anticipated. The state cannot order schools to close, but it can offer guidelines for districts to follow around reopening. They have been closed since mid-March, when Newsom issued a statewide stay-at-home order, and developed distance-learning plans on the fly.
The 14-page guidance issued Friday for schools suggests face coverings for teachers and students and asks schools to try to keep students 6 feet apart at all times — in class, the hallways or at recess. It also says schools should consider installing “portable hand-washing stations” as part of a rigorous hygiene regime that asks students and staff to wash hands before and after eating, coughing, sneezing, being outside and using the restroom.
The guidance also suggests staggering arrival times to minimize contact between students, staff and families and serve meals in classrooms or outdoors rather than in cafeterias. It calls for intensified cleaning and disinfecting, at least daily, of frequently touched surfaces on school buses and in schools, such as door handles, light switches, student desks and chairs.
Many of the measures had been hinted previously. But the guidelines released Friday, prepared by California’s Department of Health, offered the most formal framework so far for the state’s school districts whenever they reopen.