San Mateo County will move from the most restrictive purple tier to the red tier on Wednesday, enabling restaurants and gyms to open indoors with modifications, and allows increased capacity at retail and shopping centers, according to County officials.
The move to the red tier is due to the County’s falling COVID-19 case rates, including within disadvantaged communities. Following a spike in cases in December, new confirmed positive cases set a single-day record of 546 on Jan. 4. Cases have steadily fallen since. In seven days ending Sunday, Feb. 21, average daily confirmed cases were down to 40, according to County data.
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
Still not permitted:
- Amusement parks
- bars without meal service
- bowling alleys
- indoor playgrounds
- live theater
- saunas and steam rooms
- nightclubs and festivals
Learn more about COVID-19 testing options in San Mateo County here, and vaccination options here.
