Five California counties are allowed to dine indoors again today, and eight more may reopen next week

This is a game changing story and will be updated as more information becomes available

The improvement in COVID-19 infection rates for five California counties allows them to switch from the purple to the red tiers in the state color coded reopening plan, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday morning. It’s a change that will allow indoor eating to resume in these areas if proven by county health authorities. In addition, Newsom said, eight more districts are named in a „preview,” regions that „will likely move out a week later,” and which will exit the most restrictive tier of the state on March 2nd.

An updated m on the state’s COVID-19 tracker shows the newly red counties of Humboldt, Shasta, Yolo, Marin and San Mateo. They join in North Countand (network), Plumas County (red), Sierra County (Orange), Alpine County (orange) and Mariposa County (red). Trinity County, which was in the less restrictive orange category, returned to red on Tuesday. So far, every reopened county is in Northern California.

California counties that entered the red and orange grades starting February 23covid19.ca.gov

At the time of writing, the eight „preview” numbers were not disclosed. But loud San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents District 6 of the city (which included Tenderloin, Civic Center, and SoMa), San Francisco is likely to be on that list, giving the green light to reopen in the first week of March.

However, it is up to the local health authorities to make the final call and only they can decide if activities such as indoor eating can be resumed in a newly red county. In the past, when San Mateo and Marin went up a notch, they followed state orders and immediately reopened. If so today, the following Red Tier activities can be resumed immediately:

• Dining rooms in indoor restaurants can be opened to 25 percent or 100 people, whichever is lower
• Retail stores, including malls, grocery stores, and wine stores, can increase capacity to 50 percent
• Cinemas can be opened with a capacity of 25 percent (however, snack bars and concessions must remain closed).

Outside of the food world, indoor gyms and gyms can open to 10 percent capacity, and indoor museums can open to 25 percent capacity once the red level is reached.

In addition to Haney’s tweet, other local officials have suggested to Eater SF that San Francisco will be on the California DPH’s „preview” list, but even if it goes to red on March 2. Haney suggests that There is no promise that SF officers will immediately allow indoor dining. When SF entered the red tier in the summer of 2020, officials put in place a „backlog” policy that would only allow reopening at the red tier if it reached the „orange” tier of reopening. So far, officials have not confirmed whether they would continue the delay plan when things reopen.

So far, SF officials have not made an official announcement of what they will reopen if her COVID-19 rates allow her to leave the purple, however This webinar from the City’s Department of Economic and Human Resources Development could give some pointers. Scheduled for February 24th at 4:00 pm, „Best practices for the reopening according to the expected guidelines will be discussed with a live Q&A session”. The session is open to everyone and You can find the registration here.