San Mateo & Marin County Now in “Red Tier”
The state of California updated their tiers on February 23, 2021 and two Bay Area counties have been officially moved from the most restrictive “purple” tier into the less restrictive “red tier.”
San Mateo and Marin counties saw significant case number drops and now the counties are freed by the state to choose to open more activities.
- SF Gate reports that San Mateo County will move forward with all allowed reopenings including indoor dining, museums, places of worship and movie theaters all allowed at a max 25%.
- Marin County also announced it will allow many reopenings effective February 24th.
San Mateo County Reopenings
The county as of 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, February 24, 2021 (a minute after midnight) moves from the most-restrictive purple Tier 1 to red Tier 2 in the state’s four-tier, color-coded reopening plan.
Moving to Tier 2 (Red) allows:
- Restaurants indoors (max 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
- All retail indoors (max 50% capacity)
- Shopping centers, swap meets indoors (max 50% capacity, closed common areas, reduced capacity food courts)
- Personal care services – hair and nail salons, barbershops (open with modifications)
- Museums, zoos and aquariums (max 25% capacity)
- Places of worship (max 25% capacity)
- Movie theaters indoors (max 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer)
- Gyms and fitness centers indoors (max 10% capacity)
- Family entertainment centers (kart racing, mini-golf, batting cages) outdoors only with modifications
Amusement parks, bars without meal service, bowling alleys, indoor playgrounds, live theater, saunas and steam rooms, nightclubs and festivals are not permitted.
Businesses can find guidelines that apply to their industry on the state’s COVID-19 website.
Small private gatherings are allowed outdoors and indoors with modifications:
- Masks and physical distancing required
- No more than three separate households attend (including the host’s)
- Gatherings should be 2 hours or less
- Those with symptoms must not attend
- Those at high risk of severe illness strongly encouraged not to attend
- Singing, shouting, chanting, cheering, or exercising strongly discouraged outdoors and not permitted indoors
See guidance for gatherings.
Marin County Reopenings
The State of California has announced that Marin County will move from “purple” to “red” status in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy effective Wednesday, February 24.
The primary changes allowed under the state order as Marin moves into Tier 2:
- Retail establishments can expand indoor capacity to 50%
- Indoor malls can expand indoor capacity to 50% (food courts must remain closed)
- Gyms and fitness studios (including yoga and dance studios) are allowed to open indoors at 10% capacity
- Restaurants are allowed to open indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer.
- Museums are allowed to open indoors at 25% capacity
- Movie theaters are allowed to open indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer
- Cultural ceremonies, including weddings and funerals, are allowed indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer (churches and houses of worship maintain 25% indoor capacity)
The transition to Tier 2 means any Marin school that has not yet reopened to some form of in-person instruction will be eligible to make that transition beginning Monday, March 1. Once eligible, the reopening pace and scope of a school is at the discretion of school officials. To date, nearly 90% of Marin schools have already reopened to some form of site-based classroom learning.
