Hankering for a haircut? Burning for a plate of buffalo wings in a sports bar? Fiending for a fitness center?
San Mateo County may soon become the next Bay Area locale to allow people yearning for a sense of normalcy to get their fixes by expanding the list of businesses that can reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The county’s board of supervisors voted unanimously Friday morning to request a variance from the California Department of Public Health that, if approved, would allow County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow to issue a new health order to sanction reopening of additional businesses, though the list of which businesses is not yet clear.
The goal is to get the county in full alignment with the state’s reopening schedule, known as the Resilience Roadmap.
Supervisors approved sending a letter to state officials that attests the county has met or is on track to meet the readiness criteria laid out by California to allow for more reopening — including benchmarks for testing frequency, numbers of new cases and hospitalizations, hospital surge capacity and protective equipment, as well as contact tracing.
It’s unclear how soon the state will respond to the request, though officials said the state has at times turned around requests for variances in as little as a day’s time. Over 50 counties around the state have obtained variances, including Contra Costa, Napa, and Santa Cruz counties in the Bay Area.
Currently, San Mateo County does not allow dine-in restaurants, hair salons and barber shops, museums, gyms and fitness centers, and hotels to be open.
Louise Rogers, the Chief of San Mateo County Health, told supervisors that once approvals are in place, the businesses that would be permitted to reopen will still need to follow strict safety measures to help prevent spread of COVID-19, including social distancing, wearing of face coverings, and hand washing.
“The state’s initiative is to open up safely. It’s not the case that everyone just opens back up to the way it used to be,” Rogers said.
