California Counties’ Mixed Results under Business Reopening System

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Tuesdays have gained particular significance for a lot of California employers in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when the California Division of Well being (CDPH) pronounces, through a midday press convention on its YouTube channel, counties’ motion – ahead or backward – by means of the state’s four-tiered Blueprint for a Safer Financial system. Native ordinances allowing, companies in counties that transfer to a much less restrictive tier are capable of reopen or increase operations, whereas corporations in counties that regress to a extra restrictive tier might have to limit operations – or shutter fully, at the very least briefly.

At its October 20 press convention, CDPH introduced that San Francisco County turned the state’s first giant, city county to maneuver to the least restrictive (yellow) tier. Whereas Butte and Napa Counties additionally moved to much less restrictive tiers (from pink to orange), Riverside and Shasta Counties moved again to purple – probably the most restrictive tier. Anticipate to see indoor operations at film theaters, locations of worship, museums, zoos, aquariums, gyms, and eating places having to shut in Riverside and Shasta Counties topic to resuming after three weeks provided that the counties have happy the standards for development to the much less restrictive pink tier and if native well being ordinances allow reopening.

Different extra populous counties’ tier designations didn’t change within the October 20 announcement. Many of those counties – Los Angeles (purple), Orange (pink), Sacramento (pink), San Bernardino (purple), and San Diego (pink) – stay within the extra restrictive tiers.

Given the possibly profound impacts of adjustments to a county’s tier standing, employers ought to keep abreast of CDPH’s weekly bulletins and monitor adjustments to native public well being ordinances. To the extent they haven’t performed so already, employers in counties with extra restrictive tier designations ought to think about planning for the resumption of actions that accompany their counties’ eventual motion to the extra permissive tiers – nevertheless lengthy that will take.