State’s New Blueprint for Safer Economy

Hair Salons & Shopping Centers Allowed to Reopen Indoors

Beginning Monday, Aug. 31, the State has revised criteria for loosening and tightening restrictions on businesses and activities under its new framework for reducing COVID-19 called Blueprint for a Safer Economy. This new blueprint includes a color-coded tiered ranking system for counties based on case county and positivity rate. San Mateo County is currently in the purple tier, which notes there is a “widespread” risk locally.

Changes to What Can Open

Starting today, hair salons and barbershops are allowed to reopen indoors with modifications. Shopping centers are also allowed to reopen at 25% capacity.

Nail salons cannot operate indoors and most of the prior business and activity restrictions remain in place. You can easily search for an extensive list of what’s open in San Mateo County at any given time on the State’s new Blueprint web page.

All businesses must follow the State’s industry guidance for their sector. All businesses, including those with modified operations, must also continue to adhere to San Mateo County’s Health Order requiring social distancing and face covering and the safety measures outlined in the appendix.

If you wish to report a businesses that is not complying with COVID regulations within the City of San Mateo, please go to www.cityofsanmateo.org/covidcomplaints.

Color-coded Tiered Ranking System

Based on COVID-19 case count and test positivity rate, the State implemented four color-coded tiers representing levels of restrictive/less-restrictive guidelines for counties:

Purple Tier 1 (widespread) – most non-essential indoor businesses remain closed
Red Tier 2 (substantial) – some non-essential indoor businesses operations are closed
Orange Tier 3 (moderate) – some business operations are open with modifications
Yellow Tier 4 (minimal) – most business operations are open with modifications

Local county health officials may choose to be more restrictive than this framework. This framework also notes signals of concern, including impacted healthcare capacity that may lead toward state intervention. The California Department of Public Health is monitoring data (such as case count and positivity rate) and health equity measures (such as access to testing and contact tracing) to evaluate a county’s progress.

Learn more about the tiers from the California Department of Public Health.

Together we can help San Mateo County move further into reopening.
Remember to wear face coverings when in public, wash your hands frequently, maintain at least six feet of distance when in public, and limit mixing with people outside of your household.