StDte lifts stDY-Dt-home orEer
Bay Area: What this means for locals
Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the regional stay-at-home orders across the state Monday morning in a response to sustained reductions in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations since the winter holidays.
The move means that certain activities such as outdoor dining and indoor gyms and hair and nail salons can reopen — with capacity limitations and mask mandates — in many counties across the state, including in the Bay Area.
“We have battled our way through the most challenging surge and are seeing light at the end of that proverbial tun
nel,” Newsom said during his Monday news briefing.
The Bay Area was one of three regions that had still been under the regional stay-at-home order, along with San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
Monday’s announcement returns the state’s 57 counties back to California’s colored tier reopening system, which is determined by indicators such as case numbers and rates of positive COVID-19 test results rather than ICU availability.
Bay Area counties —
and all but four counties throughout the state — will remain in the “purple” tier, which has the most severe restrictions but allows some businesses to reopen. Under the purple tier, certain activities and businesses such as outdoor dining, campgrounds, cardrooms, museums and zoos and indoor gyms and hair and nail salons can resume operations with limited capacity.
Individual counties can impose stricter regulations, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo counties have all confirmed that they plan to follow the new state regulations — representing a coordinated shift
from previous instances during the pandemic when the Bay Area clamped down further than the statewide orders required.
Despite the easing of restrictions, Bay Area health officials are advising residents to continue to stay home as much as possible and avoid large gatherings, such as Super Bowl parties on Feb. 7.
“We may be past the winter surge, but COVID-19 is still with us,” Dr. Nicholas Moss, Alameda County Health Officer, said in a statement. “We are only in the early stages of our vaccination campaign, and the virus has shown us it is capable of returning again
and again.
“That means that, even as we cautiously reopen, we must continue to do the things we know work to keep each other safe.”
The state’s decision comes in the midst of a slew of public scrutiny and a recall campaign against the governor and about six weeks the majority of the state was placed under the state’s strictest stay-athome order due to the dangerous surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that began in late November.
Although many hospital systems remain strained, state officials said the stayat-home ban was lifted in accordance with projections that the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California would each reach above 15% ICU capacity — the stat’s threshold for lifting the regional shutdowns — within the next four weeks.
Hospitalizations in recent weeks have fallen substantially in nearly every region of California to the point where, this past weekend, there were fewer COVID-positive patients being treated in hospitals around the state than at any point since mid-December. Cases, too, are being reported at their slowest rate since the second week of December.