Assessor Chu's Statement on SF Continues Reopening at State's Yellow Tier

*** STATEMENT****

SAN FRANCISCO， CA — The City & County today announced San Francisco is continuing its measured reopening of the economy. Beginning Tuesday, October 27, the City will reopen “non-essential” offices at limited capacity. San Francisco will also reopen indoor climbing walls and will move forward on expanding other businesses and activities. In addition, San Francisco updated its timeline for opening additional activities over the coming weeks. These next steps come as the State assigned San Francisco to Yellow on its tiered reopening system, based on San Francisco’s COVID-19 case and infection rates and equity metric. Since the State introduced the tiered system on August 28th, San Francisco has had a deliberate approach to reopening that has resulted in San Francisco being the only county in the Bay Area placed in the Yellow tier and the only urban area to be at Yellow.

Assessor Carmen Chu, co-chair of the Economic Recovery Task Force, issued the following statement:

“San Francisco has once again led the state with our deliberate yet collaborative approach to safe re-opening. Over the last few months, the Economic Recovery Task Force has worked hard with industry leaders to plan a path forward. Today, we are witnessing the great results of teamwork and cooperation from everybody. As a dense city, getting to yellow is a huge accomplishment, I am excited to see more businesses come back and let’s keep it going!”

In addition to non-essential offices and climbing gyms, San Francisco is moving forward on expanding the following activities on Tuesday, October 27th:

Indoor fitness centers can increase their indoor capacity to 25%, without cardio or aerobic classes.

Some indoor personal services that require limited face covering removal including services provided by estheticians, waxing, and skin treatments.

Institutes of higher education can increase capacity of outdoor classes to 25 people (including instructors) and can request an exception to the 2-hour limit on indoor classes.

New Activities on November 3rd

Indoor pools.

Indoor bowling alleys.

Indoor fitness centers, including those in hotels, can open their locker rooms and showers.

Expanded Activities on November 3rd

Dining establishments, including those within hotels, shopping centers and museums, can increase their indoor capacity to 50% up to 200 people, and with a maximum time limit per table seating of 3 hours.

Indoor worship can expand their capacity to 50%, up to 200 people.

Outdoor worship or political protests can expand to 300 people, with face coverings and distancing.

Indoor museums, zoos, and aquariums can increase their capacity to 50%.

Movie theaters can increase their capacity to 50% up to 200 people, without food or beverage concessions.

Allow some types of live performances with up to six performers to take place in a drive-in setting.

Film productions can expand indoor activities and allow for removal of face coverings under specific guidelines and can expand outdoor activities to up to 50 people.

GOAL: mid-November

Bars not serving food can re-open for outdoor operations, with specific health and safety protocols that will be forthcoming.

Reopening of Schools - Ongoing