Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel on Tuesday revised her shelter-in-place order to align most of the county’s restrictions with that of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order.
The new county order will open places of worship, in-store retail, outdoor museums and limited personal services such as car washes and pet grooming. It goes into effect at 11:59pm tonight, May 26.
State leaders on Monday loosened restrictions on places of worship, allowing them to throw their doors open with approval from their respective county health departments.
Retail, too, got the greenlight statewide to open for in-store shopping, giving businesses that have been devastated by state and county orders a fighting chance.
Newsom on Tuesday said counties that have met variance requirements and have received approval from the state may allow barbershops and hairdressers to open. Santa Cruz County has met the requirements and will apply for the variance on June 2, pending approval by the Board of Supervisors. State review may take up to a week, county officials said.
“As we move forward with these changes, I want to caution everyone that Covid-19 is still present in our community. Anyone who is 65 years old or older, as well as those who are medically vulnerable, should continue sheltering in place,” Newel said. “I urge all members of our community to help those who need to shelter by continuing to offer help and check in.”
Local churches, synagogues and temples are now allowed to resume services at 25% capacity or a maximum of 100 people—whichever is fewer. However, they must meet stringent guidelines provided on Monday by the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA that aim to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The 13-page document calls on places of worship to enforce physical distancing measures, require use of face coverings and train all employees and volunteers on their workplace specific plan, which should include increased disinfecting routines.
It also says visitors should be screened for symptoms of Covid-19 before being allowed in, and that places of worship should strongly consider halting or modifying singing, group performances and other practices such as communion that increase the likelihood of transmission.
Places of worship will be open under the restrictions for 21 days. The interval accounts for seven days for religious communities to prepare and reopen in addition to a 14-day incubation period of Covid-19.
Following those three weeks, the CDPH and county health department will “review and assess the impact of the imposed limits on public health and provide further direction as part of a phased-in restoration of activities in places of worship.”
It is still unclear when churches in the Pajaro Valley and the greater Monterey Bay will open. Bishop Daniel Garcia of the Diocese of Monterey, which represents dozens of local churches, including St. Patrick’s Church and Our Lady Help of Christians in Watsonville and Our Lady of the Assumption in Pajaro, in a recent video announcement said its places of worship would not open until they put together comprehensive plans of how to do so.
“At each parish (we’re) trying to create the logistics of what would it look like when we return,” he said. “Who can come? Where can you sit? We do all want to return and go back into those celebrations that we’ve been accustomed to, and that we’ve been missing, but at the same time we want to do it in a very safe way.”
Retail stores, meanwhile, can take yet another step into Phase 2 of California’s so-called Resilience Roadmap by allowing customers to shop in-store.
Business owners must meet a long list of checkpoints from an 11-page document that stresses physical distancing between workers and customers alike. Employees, the document suggests, should be protected with Plexiglas barriers at checkout stations, increased cleaning practices and contactless payment systems, among other things.
Businesses are also asked to limit the number of people in the store, allowing no more than 50% of their maximum capacity.
Kelly Pleskunas, who owns Kelly’s Books at Watsonville Square Shopping Center on Main Street, says those loosened restrictions will give her business a chance at survival.
“This is huge,” she says.
The small independent bookstore opened for curbside pickup two weeks ago, and Pleskunas says sales have picked up since then. They, however, have not returned to their pre-shelter-in-place totals.
“People want to browse,” she says. “That’s key for a bookstore.”
Pleskunas says she has converted certain sections of her store to meet the physical distancing requirements. She will require customers to use store-provided hand sanitizer before they walk in and will also provide disposable gloves.
“There’s little bit of policing that comes with it, but that’s fine,” she says.
On the other side of the city, Sindy Hernandez is taking a slower approach. She says her clothing boutique, Queen’s Shoes, will remain closed to in-store shopping until June. She then will allow customers in by appointment only, but will not allow them to try on clothes—a practice other clothing shops have implemented to lower the chance of transmission. Instead, she will take measurements to help customers find the right size.
“I’m not scared, but I want to take my precautions,” says Hernandez, who has two kids with asthma.
Though the shelter-in-place restrictions were initially rough on sales, Hernandez says they have also been a “blessing in disguise.” The closures forced her to refine her presence on the web and increase her marketing through social media.
She has since seen an uptick in sales, which included more than 2,300 face coverings—roughly 800 of which have helped raise money for nonprofits such as Families in Transition through her Mask for a Cause campaign.
“It’s a whole new process,” she says, “but I’m managing to make it work.”
The order maintains language on daily beach closures between 11am-5pm, as well as language restricting patronage at local hotels, motels and vacations rentals, including asking lodging owners to maintain a log of the purposes customers are staying at local lodging establishments.
The order will expire July 1.
