Several new activities and businesses will be able to reopen as soon as Wednesday as San Francisco is set to move to the red tier of the state’s reopening system, Mayor London Breed said.
With the city moving out of the most restrictive purple tier, businesses like indoor dining, indoor gyms, indoor museums and movie theaters will be able to open once again, albeit with capacity limits.
The move comes as city health experts said Tuesday that the city’s COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were decreasing, with the city currently seeing just 67 new cases daily. The city hasn’t seen such a low number since mid-November, just before the holiday surge.
“Thanks to everyone in our city acting responsibly and doing their part, we can take another step towards reopening and beginning our recovery,” Breed said in a statement.
In addition to reopening the indoor activities and businesses, the red tier move allows for the city to expand outdoor activities like Ferris wheels and carousels and sports for both adults and youth. Also, non-essential gatherings like outdoor dining will be able to continue past 10 p.m.
The newly eased restrictions are expected to provide much-needed relief for the city’s hard-hit industries. Back in September, indoor restaurants and gyms were allowed to reopen with capacity limits for the first time since the pandemic began in March 2020, but as cases began to surge just two months later, they were forced to close indefinitely once again.
San Francisco Department of Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said, “As we continue to gradually reopen we need to be aware of the risks and to stay vigilant, especially while vaccines remain limited and the growing presence of more contagious variants pose an increased risk of greater community spread.”
In January, the city resumed indoor nail and hair salons along with outdoor dining after Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted a statewide stay-home order that had been in effect since mid-December.
In addition to San Francisco, both Santa Clara and Napa counties are also expected to move to the red tier this week, joining other Bay Area counties already in the red tier in San Mateo and Marin.
More information about the city’s reopenings can be found at www.sf.gov/reopening.