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Bay Area’s momentum in reopening economy disrupted as counties freeze some plans

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe Bay Area’s march to reopen the economy was disrupted on Friday when two counties jarred by a jump in new coronavirus infections abruptly halted plans to open some businesses and a third county said it is considering a similar move.San Francisco postponed plans to allow certain businesses to reopen next week, including hair salons, museums and outdoor bars, following a spate of new coronavirus cases, officials said Friday. Earlier this week, the city announced plans to accelerate the reopening of the city’s economy by several weeks, citing favorable health data around new cases and hospitalizations.A rash of new cases in San Francisco — 103 — were reported Friday, raising concerns among city leaders and public health officials that a major outbreak could be on the horizon.In Marin County, some businesses planning to reopen Monday will not be allowed to do so, while others can go ahead as planned, county health officials said Friday. The ones approved to resume are indoor dining, hair salons, barbershops, campgrounds and picnic areas, but hotels, gyms, nail salons, tattoo parlors and skin-care services will be prohibited from reopening.Marin County reported a record number on Thursday with 54 new cases. Twelve people are currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county, including five in intensive care, marking an all-time high.More for you“We’re seeing patterns we need to pay attention to. We’re not closing anything down. We’re just slowing the pace in response to the data,” said Dr. Matt Willis, county health officer.Health officials in Contra Costa County said they plan to announce their decision about a potentially altered timeline by Monday. Hospitalizations there increased 42% in the past seven days. The county’s seven-day average of new cases rose to 77 — up from 48 one week ago.“This suggests the change is not simply due to more testing, but indicates a true increase in community spread,” health officials said in a statement. Indoor dining, bars, gyms and other businesses are scheduled to reopen July 1 in Contra Costa County.The moves in the Bay Area came as the number of new coronavirus cases is surging in several states, including Texas, Arizona, South Carolina and Florida, as governments desperate to revive their economies have allowed businesses to reopen and people to move about more freely. As the coronavirus tears through communities, city, county and state officials across the country have been forced to pull back or pause reopening efforts.Speeding up the reopening was always contingent upon the number of new cases and hospitalizations remaining low. The 103 new cases do not represent a one-day jump, but rather an accumulation of cases logged over the last few days that were reported at the same time.“Our reopening process is guided by data and science. COVID-19 cases are rising throughout California,” Mayor London Breed tweeted Friday. “We’re now seeing a rise in cases in SF too. Our numbers are still low but rising rapidly. As a result, we’re temporarily delaying the reopenings that were scheduled for Monday.”Public health experts, Breed said, “will evaluate the data over the coming days to determine if it’s safe to move forward. I know people are anxious to reopen — I am too. But we can’t jeopardize the progress we’ve made.”San Francisco Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said Friday that there was no immediate indication that the new cases in San Francisco were tied to a specific place or event. Most of the new cases come from the Latino community, Colfax said, a trend that has continued since the start of the pandemic. Health officials and contact tracing investigators were working to establish whether any other trends cut across the batch of new cases.“We don’t know yet what the root cause of this increase is. I think it’s probably a combination of factors,” Colfax said, urging the public to continue wearing face coverings in public, wash their hands frequently and to practice social distancing whenever possible.The percentage of positive test results has more than doubled over the past week, Colfax said. The city has recently been administering more than 2,000 coronavirus tests daily. As of June 14, the positive rate was around 2%, but it had risen to 5.1% as of Thursday, Colfax said.San Francisco had been one of the few Bay Area counties that has not reported a large spike in cases in recent weeks. However, the 62 cases now attributed to samples collected on Monday are the most for a single day since April 28.The next few weeks will be critical for determining whether the upward trend will continue because sharp upticks of new infections can presage surges that could threaten to overwhelm the city’s hospital system.Cases in California and across the country have spiked in recent weeks. Public health officials have long cautioned that reopening too quickly risks undoing months of progress brought about by sheltering in place and social distancing measures. Amid concerns about the spread of the virus, organizers of the Bay to Breakers race On Wednesday, the annual Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park was canceled for 2020.Gov. Gavin Newsom urged officials in Imperial County to reinstate mandatory stay-at-home orders after an alarming spike in hospitalizations there. More than 500 patients have had to be transferred to other counties from overwhelmed medical centers in Imperial County. Some are being treated in San Francisco.Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.In Texas the surge in cases triggered a statewide response. Gov. Greg Abbott paused that state’s reopening process Thursday after cases and hospitalizations soared. In Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, a county judge imposed the highest-threat level, banning gatherings of more than 100 people and urging local mayors to follow suit after hospitalizations continued to spike. She also called for stay-at-home measures that were in place during March and April.Florida, another state that reopened early, has reported record-breaking numbers of new cases almost daily. On Friday, Florida officials closed bars to slow the spread of the virus, pulling the state back a step in its reopening plan. Texas is also closing its bars.“We’re clearly seeing some major surges of infections in Texas, Florida and other places that thought it was safe to get people back into public spaces or never thought masks (should be mandatory),” said Dr. Art Reingold, professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health.“Unfortunately, I see no reason why the virus is going to leave,” he said. “I don’t think temperature, season or humidity are going to make much of a difference. We’re going to see ebbs and flows in whether people are willing to change their behaviors or let other people order them to change their behaviors.”After the delay in San Francisco’s reopening plan was announced, vexation was mixed with disappointment among some businesses Friday.“It’s frustrating. It feels like the health department can’t make up its mind,” said Paul Miller, owner of the Royal Cuckoo bar in Bernal Heights. Miller had spent much of the week buying furniture for outdoor seating, ordering drink ingredients and scrubbing the whole place from top to bottom — no small feat, since the bar had sat empty since San Francisco’s shelter-in-place began in March.Yen Tuyet Le was ready for Monday’s opening. After three months being closed, she was excited to reopen her nail salon, Paua Beauty Lounge on Powell Street. She installed plastic dividers on manicure tables, stocked up on masks and gloves, and retrained her staff on sterilizing nail service equipment. She had social distancing notices all over her Russian Hill salon and planned to require clients to wear masks at all times. She was even going to offer complimentary manicures to San Francisco nurses.“It’s disappointing, but I understand that the health of the community is important,” Le said. “I just don’t know how I’m supposed to stay in business.”Chronicle staff writers Esther Mobley, Rachel Swan and Anna Bauman contributed to this report.Dominic Fracassa and Shwanika Narayan are a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: , Twitter: ,Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts.

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigateThe Bay Area’s march to reopen the economy was disrupted on Friday when two counties jarred by a jump in new coronavirus infections abruptly halted plans to open some businesses and a third county said it is considering a similar move.San Francisco postponed plans to allow certain businesses to reopen next week, including hair salons, museums and outdoor bars, following a spate of new coronavirus cases, officials said Friday. Earlier this week, the city announced plans to accelerate the reopening of the city’s economy by several...

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Dominic Fracassa

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Bay Area’s momentum in reopening economy disrupted as counties freeze some plans

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