Newest recovery plan provides hope for some, frustration for others

Gov. Newsom’s announcement Friday that the state had unveiled its new Blueprint for a Safer Economy for reducing COVID-19 met with swift ridicule from the Senate Republican Caucus, relief from certain business sectors and frustration from those that remain closed.

Along with the new blueprint, the state introduced revised criteria for loosening and tightening restriction on activities, as well as a tiered, color-coded system, which will guide movement from tier to tier.

The changes outlined in the state’s blueprint, such as allowing barbershops and hair salons to resume restricted indoor operations, will go in to effect Monday.

The Blueprint for a Safer Economy replaces the County Data Monitoring List for determining what business can and cannot open. The Imperial County Public Health Department said an updated local health officer order will be issued to reflect the recent state changes.

Every county in California is assigned to a tier based on its rate of new cases and testing positivity. Imperial County is currently in tier one. At a minimum, counties must remain in a tier for at least three weeks before moving forward.

Data will be reviewed weekly and tiers updated on Tuesdays, the county Public Health Department said in a release. To move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will be assigned a more restrictive tier.

Activities and businesses that have a lower risk of spreading COVID-19 are allowed to open sooner. Higher-risk activities or businesses aren’t allowed until later tiers. An activity or business’s tier depends on whether it can:

• Accommodate mask wearing at all times (for example, eating and drinking requires removing masks)

• Allow physical distance between individuals from different households

• Limit the number of people per square foot

• Limit time that an individual is at the business or activity

• Limit time of exposure

• Limit mixing of people from different households

• Limit amount of physical interactions of visitors/patrons

• Increase airflow (such as operating outdoors or opening windows and doors)

• Limit activities that are known to increase virus spread (like singing, shouting and heavy breathing).

Needless to say, the Senate Republican Caucus did not endorse the plan. “Gov. Newsom’s latest color-coded, tiered system is furthest from the original purpose for the statewide shutdown — to protect our hospitals’ capacity to handle a surge of COVID-19 patients,” the caucus said in a release. “Trying to figure out the percentage of positive tests to determine if a few more people can come into a business on one day and less on the next has nothing to do with protecting hospital capacity. In fact, hospital numbers are not even considered in the new system.”

Although Imperial County’s contagion level is still considered “widespread” (purple) in the new metrics, the governor announced all hair salons and barbershops statewide could open indoors with modifications beginning on Monday.

This decision was met with enthusiasm by Imperial County’s hair cutting professionals.

Lorena V. Ogle, who works at the Fifth Street Salon in El Centro welcomed the news.

“It’s awesome,” Ogle said. “Starting Aug. 31, we will be able to come back to work.”

Meanwhile, restaurants, nail salons, body art establishments and gyms are still largely left on the outside looking in.

Francesca Schuler, an advisory board member of the California Fitness Alliance, called Newsom’s revised rules a step backward that would devastate the struggling industry. She said she was perplexed why health clubs are being slapped with stricter limits on capacity than restaurants, especially because customers can work out individually, on spacedout equipment and wear masks.

“We will not survive this as an industry,” she said.

The California Restaurant Association said in a statement Friday that restaurants will continue to close permanently around the state because Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan will continue to keep most indoor dining rooms closed, while others will have strict limits on capacity.

Restaurants “are closing for good, by the thousands,” association President Jot Condie said in a statement. The group estimates as many as 1 million restaurant workers have been furloughed or laid off during the pandemic.

The city of Imperial and its council recently gave its businesses the green light to reopen, regardless of health orders, if they choose, but very few of them have done so, Assistant City Manager Alexis Brown said.

She said very few businesses in the community have provided the city with the necessary safety guidelines set by the California Department of Public Health to reopen.

One of the biggest critics of the shutdown is Imperial 4:13 Fitness owner Terry Robertson, who spoke repeatedly to government officials about the impacts the shutdown was having on his business.

As of Friday, the gym remained mostly closed, though there were a few people who entered the building with keys. They had no comment on when or if they were going to reopen to members.

Brown said when the Imperial City Council ruled it was not going to enforce the continuation of businesses being closed, many store owners chose not to take the chance, even though council members and the Imperial Chamber of Commerce said all businesses are essential to people’s livelihoods.

Brown said any business violating the state and county orders are at risk from those entities and would receive no assistance from the city.

A few business owners have asked questions, and Brown said the city has provided them with resources to help them make their decision.

She said some business owners may have decided to wait after the county was granted a variance, thinking progress had been made.

“What it (the variance) did is it provided some hope and progress,” she said, but added the variance to allow outdoor services only is the reason the city passed its own order.

The Connection Café at First Christian Church in El Centro has resumed patio service after being allowed to do so under the most recent county health order.

Café manager Sam Rice said the coffee shop always had the chairs and tables outside, but they were put away when the county was placed in Stage 1.

“A coffee club is used for social activity,” he said. “It’s a relief we will be able to open up.”

For more information about where each California county falls and what activities will be allowable in each county, visit covid19.ca.gov.

For additional information, please visit the Imperial County Public Health Department website at http: www. icphd.org.

Associated Press and Editor-in-Chief Tom Bodus contributed to this story.