San Mateo County Moved into Red Tier

Indoor Dining, Gyms & Places of Worship Allowed With Limits

The state of California today announced good news in the local fight against the coronavirus in San Mateo County.

The county – effective immediately – moves to the second stage (red) of the state’s four-tiered, color-coded reopening system. This means indoor restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and places of worship may now open with restrictions in San Mateo County.

Still, the county’s new risk level is considered “substantial” under the state’s monitoring system and officials caution that businesses and individuals must continue to follow health and safety guidelines. San Mateo County’s health order requiring face coverings, social distancing, and limited gatherings remains in effect. Business must follow state industry guidance.

Changes to What Can Open

Effective immediately the following new activities/business operations are allowed:

Restaurants indoors (max 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
All retail indoors (max 50% capacity)
Shopping centers, swap meets indoors (max 50% capacity, closed common areas)
Personal care services – hair and nail salons, barbershops (open with modifications)
Museums, zoos and aquariums (max 25% capacity)
Places of worship (max 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
Movie theaters indoors (max 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
Gyms and fitness centers indoors (max 10% capacity)
And more

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. Under the tier system, bars, breweries and distilleries where no meals are served remain closed.

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.

Schools: The Road Ahead

The Red Tier 2 also gets schools one step closer to supporting in-person learning, but it will continue to be a gradual process.

First, San Mateo County must stay in the Red Tier 2 for two consecutive weeks. Then, for a return to campus, a school must be able to implement the Four Pillars of the San Mateo County Office of Education’s Pandemic Recovery Framework, including health and hygiene protocols, physical distancing, face coverings, and limiting gatherings. A COVID-19 testing plan for staff must also be in place. Visit the San Mateo County Office of Education’s website for more details.

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.

Find City of San Mateo specific updates at www.cityofsanmateo.org/coronavirus

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.