ESCONDIDO — Businesses countywide are once again resuming indoor operations after Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a new tiered system for reopening businesses. The new guidelines mean that San Diego restaurants, salons, gyms, places of worship and more can move back inside, with restrictions.
Newsom announced the new four-tier, color-coded system on Aug. 28, and counties can move through it based on their number of cases and the percentage of positive tests.
San Diego County is currently in the red tier, meaning it has “substantial risk.”
For restaurants, places of worship and movie theaters, this means limited indoor operations at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer. Gyms, yoga studios and fitness centers can operate with 10% occupancy, while hair salons, barbershops, tattoo parlors, piercing shops and nail salons can operate indoors with normal capacity.
Mask mandates and social distancing guidelines still apply.
The county is also requiring that all businesses that are resuming indoor operations have a way to document the names and phone numbers of guests that come in.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher explained in a press conference that this sign-in list will aid in tracking people who were potentially exposed to outbreaks or positive cases at businesses that have reopened.
Though many Escondido businesses are hurrying to get back inside, others have had weeks to adjust to outdoor operations thanks to the city’s recent outdoor expansion efforts, and some are taking their time.
Bob Carpenter, co-owner of Sunny Side Kitchen in Escondido, told The Coast News that at 25% capacity, they can only seat seven people inside their 600-square-foot restaurant, and they plan on staying outdoors until they can implement a reservation system that will make it easier to track guests.
In the meantime, he says they’re okay with being cautious.
“At a restaurant, there’s a lot of people coming in and out all the time, and we would rather be safe. We’re concerned about our own health and our employees’ health. We don’t want to all of a sudden have 50 people in the restaurant, we’d rather go slow until there’s a more permanent solution,” Carpenter said. “Everyone wants to get back to doing what they were doing, but we’re in a pandemic and that’s not something that we should take lightly.”
The Sculpture Salon in Escondido has been operating for 40 years and, according to co-owner Louise Ronalds, they’re also being cautious as they resume their indoor operations.
“We’re very happy to be able to serve our customers indoors again, they’ve been excited to get back inside,” Ronalds said. “We’re trying to ease back into it, though, because we want to be cautious and do all that we can to make sure it’s done safely.”
To move to the next lower-risk tier, the county will have to report an improvement in case numbers for at least two consecutive weeks.
