Mayor Breed Announces New Stay-at-Home Orders for San Francisco

Following up on Governor Gavin Newsom’s declaration yesterday that stay-at-home orders would be being rolled out for most California counties, Mayor London Breed announced today at 1:15pm that San Francisco would be preemptively enacting many of those restrictions beginning Sunday December 6th at 10pm.   The new stay at home order is expected to remain in place in San Francisco until January 4th.

Breed explained that due to the rising hospitalization rates in San Francisco, and the surrounding counties, that we must act preemptively, to avoid overwhelming our ICUs.   As she put it,  “If you’re not working to stay ahead of this virus, you are falling far, far, far behind.”  She did add, with some confidence, “we have vaccinations that are within sight, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Dr. Colfax did say that San Francisco will receive a limited amount of vaccines that will be distributed to essential workers this month.  The general public is not expected to receive any vaccines for several months.

Now, more than ever its important to patronize your favorite local businesses (safely).  Support your favorite local businesses the ways you can, ie ordering takeout, curbside pickup, delivery, and donations, because this is going to be a very, very tough time for them.

The following activities will be required to suspend operations until further notice:

• Personal services. Establishments offering personal care services including hair and nail salons, barbers, tattoo, piercing, estheticians and massage must cease operations, including both indoor and outdoor operations.
• Outdoor dining. Restaurants and any other establishments offering meal service, may only operate for delivery or take-out. Eating and drinking on the premises is prohibited.
• Outdoor museums, aquariums, and zoos. Outdoor installations or exhibits associated with museums, aquariums, or zoos may not allow entrance to visitors. Outdoor botanical gardens and historic sites may remain open.
• Indoor gyms. Limited 1:1 personal training within gyms and fitness centers that was allowed under the previous health order must cease, but may take place outdoors (see below).
• Drive-in gatherings. Drive in theaters and other performances delivered in a drive in context must cease.
• Outdoor playgrounds. Public playgrounds including climbing structures and walls, slides swings, sand pits, etc. must close.
• Outdoor family entertainment centers. Outdoor family entertainment centers including skate parks, roller and ice skating rinks, batting cages, go kart racing and miniature golf must close.
• Open-air bus and boat operators. Operators of open-air busses offering sight seeing and other tour services and open-air boat excursions, including leisure and fishing expeditions, must cease operations.

The following activities will be required to restrict their operations:

• Low Contact Retail. Service oriented retail such as dog groomers, electronics repair services and shoe repair services can operate in a curbside drop off context only.
• Retail. All retail establishments such as shopping centers, hardware stores, convenience stores, equipment rental, and specialty shops, and including standalone grocery stores, must reduce capacity to 20% (down from 25% and 50% in the case of grocery stores) and implement a metering system (see below).

The following activities will be required to proceed with modifications in place:

• Hotels and lodging. Hotels may only accept reservations from essential workers travelling for work purposes or to support critical infrastructure including accommodations for isolation and quarantine purposes. If an individual who is not travelling for essential purposes makes a reservation, it must be at least for the number of days required for quarantine. The persons identified in the reservation must quarantine in the hotel or lodging facility for the entirety of the time required.
• Small gatherings. Small outdoor gatherings, must limit themselves to members of 1 household with a maximum number of 12 people (down from up to three households or no more than 25 people). Face coverings must remain on at all times and no eating or drinking is allowed.
• Outdoor gyms. Outdoor gym or fitness center activities as well as outdoor fitness in-person group classes (such as boot camps, dance, yoga, tai-chi, etc.) are limited to groups of 12 people, including personnel, and must maintain strict distance and face covering requirements. Running groups are prohibited.
• Youth sports. Youth sports activities affiliated with a childcare program, Out of School Time program, or other organized and supervised youth sports program may continue operating outdoors only without competitions or spectators and with strict social distancing and face covering requirements in place.
• Indoor activities open to public. Any establishment allowing members of the public to access indoor areas, including shopping centers, grocery stores, corner stores, financial services, hardware stores, pharmacies, etc. must establish a metering system to monitor capacity thresholds and ensure capacity does not exceed limits. In effect, a business will need to assign a specific staff person to monitor the number of people in the establishment and ensure that the 20% capacity threshold is maintained at all times. This system must be in place as soon as possible and no later than Sunday, December 6^th at 10 p.m. when the amended order becomes operative. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
• Adult Recreation. No/low contact adult recreational activities such as golf, tennis, pickle ball, and bocce ball may continue outdoors but must be limited to participants within the same household.

Additional information about which businesses and activities can operate in San Francisco and what modifications are required at this time is available at sf.gov/step-by-step/reopening-san-francisco.