The Guardian
‘People are champing at the beat’: California is reopening – but how fast is it?
Most people will eventually go back to the gym or to the movies. But health experts say caution is needed to prevent future lockdowns as people continue to resume business at Malibu Pier on Sunday. Photograph: Mark J. Terrell / AP For the first time in over a year, most people in California can dine indoors, go to the gym, get a movie at their local theater, or attend a religious service. The state’s mood has been buoyant in recent weeks, with the number of cases dropping sharply and big cities changing the country’s strictest and longest-running rules. In San Francisco, groups of picnickers gather in parks as the weather warms, residents are able to reunite with vaccinated friends and family, and two area baseball teams are preparing to play for fans for the opening day on April 1st. In Los Angeles, one of the most difficult areas in the U.S., museums and other cultural institutions that have been closed for over a year are preparing to reopen their doors. Disneyland is gearing up to welcome residents in April, and Hollywood filmmaking has been booming in recent months, though the industry is not yet at the first level of the epidemic. The movie sponsor has arrived in Burbank on March 15 to watch a movie. Photograph: Mark J. Terrell / AP Dave Parker, General Manager, replaces a movie poster at the entrance to the Tower Theater on Friday in Sacramento. Photograph: Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Zuma Wire / REX / Shutterstock “In California, we’re not going to crawl back. We will shout back, ”Governor Gavin News said during his State of the Union address in early March. “Today, the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter than before,” he added. But despite the optimism, the state is still not out of the tunnel. 56 More than 56,000 Californians have died from the virus, hundreds still die every day, leaving state leaders to explore a balanced act of encouraging enthusiasm that will help restore the economy and enforce limits to keep the virus at bay. And against the backdrop of fresh lockdowns and rising number of cases in Europe, many public health consultants are urging states not to leave their guard. (Some kind of) normal return? Since the summer, California has used a color-coded system to designate the level of prohibition in each county, combined with the number of local cases – purple as the most restricted, followed by red, orange and yellow. State officials relaxed the rules this month, enabling dozens of counties to progress more quickly to lower levels of sanctions. Last week, 42 of California’s 58 counties qualified for the red level, imposing restrictions as low as 0% of the state and enabling many non-essential businesses to operate with partial capacity for the first time since oors gust. Four counties have qualified for the orange level and 1 has made it yellow. We want to burn downdown blueprints as soon as possible, and never think about going back. DD Myers, executive director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, Laurie Thomas, the governor’s adviser, owns and operates two of Sand Francisco, which is heavily affected by the epidemic. He says business owners are eagerly awaiting a return to near normalcy. “We are very optimistic,” she says, adding that she considers herself lucky even after relying on personal loans to cover payroll and being forced to dramatically reduce her staff. In one of San Francisco’s once bustling financial districts, friends with institutions remain employed in “haunted towns” until office-fee workers return from remote work. San Francisco, currently in red tires, is expected to move to orange tires next week, meaning church and movie theaters could fill 50% of their seats, host a pattern outside the bar, and Bowling Alley, the gym could open with 25%. Capacity. Rest Restaurants rents will be changed from 25% indoor seating to 50%, and retail stores will be limited by the only social distance change to allow at least 6 feet of space between customers. Thomas says his customers have become more and more eager to eat, especially on days when the two-area antics are filled with cold wind-blown outdoor dining parklets. But he still advocates a more measured approach to the city – which has also pulled back on state sanctions – if that means the city is less likely to turn into a lockdown again. People are waiting in line to receive a dose of Johnson & Johnson & Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the vaccination site inside Ruther Hall at Forty Acres in Delano, California this week. Photograph: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP / Getty Images “A small restaurant like mine can lose about 10,000 10,000 every time you close,” she says, adding that 15% of rest restaurants have not survived the rent shutdown and have been good. “A lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon – but we have to move slowly.” Some California residents are less patient. Political pressure is mounting on the governor to let the locals set their own pace, and with the recovery of California, Newsom is now fighting an attempt to pull back which has been fueled by the frustration of some residents from California’s heavy-handed lockdown. Much of the Central Valley, California, is a rugged and rural area in the center of California, purple. Kovid has had a severe impact on farm workers in the area, who have faced high rates of transmission, and initial efforts to make vaccines more accessible have stalled since the slow start. But Fresno County’s Ha Res Res Ranch, the hotel and restaurant that sits on the Interstate 5 freeway, has done little to slow down the ban. Joachim Juarez said a statewide sense of optimism has helped fuel stopovers at a restaurant on his road. Tourists visit the San Francisco Botanical Gardens in San Francisco on March 8th. Photograph: Xinhua / REX / Shutterstock “We’ve seen a big increase in business with the start of the rest of the state, where some of us have to wait 30 or 40 minutes,” Juarez said. California still has travel limits and public health officials have told people to stay home and avoid traveling more than 120 miles outside the city. But the rules do not apply. Juarez says 85% of its patrons are drivers coming from I-5. Purple tires mean the restaurant is restricted to outdoor dining, but a white tent spread across the parking lot is arranged to serve 120, complete with strong-up chandeliers, high-backed chairs and Easter decor. “I think people will get entcei now,” Juarez said, adding that the restaurant was preparing to become its busiest day for Easter. By then, he hopes, the county will qualify for Red Tire so the business will welcome more people and offer a few seats in the dining room inside. “Once we open up, I’m sure things will bounce back soon and we’ll get back to normal,” he said. “It’s just a matter of opening the door.” ‘Cautiously optimistic’ but the concern remains with its reopening, with California rushing to vaccinate as many people as possible, especially communities hit hard by the virus. The state has given more than 13 million doses so far, but a recent report found that, when it comes to equal distribution, the state ranks among the worst in the country. “On the one hand, it’s really hard to strike a balance between trying to prevent the disease and trying to minimize the negative effects of the measures,” said Dr. Arthur Ringold, head of the epidemiology department at the University of California, Berkeley. Public health. However, he is concerned about the risk of hospitalization and death with fewer restrictions. “Day by day in California we are getting higher levels of immunity in our communities,” he said. With the increase in vaccination rates, cases of covid in California have dropped by about 42% in the last two weeks. People reopening indoor dining in Los Angeles dined at Grand Central Market on March 15th. Photograph: Frederick J. Brown / AFP / Getty Images “We are very optimistic – but cautiously optimistic,” said DD Myers, a senior adviser to Newsom, who was appointed head of the state’s Office of Business and Economic Development in December. “Everyone wants to do this safely and open as quickly as possible without risking retreat or putting people in an unsafe position.” But concerns remain that California is opening up too fast, especially for those who will be on the front lines when businesses resume. Yanira Revolorio, a two-area janitor working in the department store, said she had not yet been vaccinated and was still worried about Covid’s possible circumstances at work. During a media preview at SVN West, guests watch a demonstration of Immersive Van Gogh, an art experience in San Francisco with the city reopening. Photograph: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images “They should make this vaccine much more accessible, and make sure all the necessary workers are qualified,” said the 24-year-old Spaniard. He stays with his mother and avoids embracing her. “I’m always worried about getting in touch with her,” he said. “I think the reopening is too soon because not everyone is following Kovid’s precaution.” Some healthcare workers who were on the front lines during the increase in the LA’s catastrophic covid in December and January also said they were concerned that many workers had not yet been vaccinated. “If we can’t get our guard down, we’ll go back to ground zero,” said Marcia Santini, a nurse at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was hospitalized with Covid in December. Watching Italy return to the lockdown has raised fears that LA will see another wave of infection. “We cannot be ignorant. I know how painful this is. We came away from this; We stick to this until we get the majority of vaccines. “Dori ka thread can be a difficult needle,” said Myers, an economic adviser at News, about efforts to remind residents of the dangers when sanctions are eased. He called the situation “calm” in Europe and elsewhere in the world, adding that California’s success has forced people to wear masks “There is still a lot to be done and there is a lot of complexity,” he said. “We want to burn the roadmap. We want to burn the blueprint as soon as possible.” And never think about going back. But we’re not there yet. “
