SAN JOSE – After months of having some of the strictest COVID-19 shutdown rules in the state, Santa Clara County is giving up the autonomous approach and approaching California’s mainstream due to declining virus cases and growing vaccinations .
Public health officials said they were reducing restrictions on outdoor activities – including youth sports, as previously announced – as of Friday. And when the county moves to the red level of the state for reopening, which is expected to take place on Wednesday, they will allow the return of the inner table and some assemblies, with capacity and distance limits.
The early restart of the indoor table – with a capacity of 25% – was welcome news for Kostas Perakis, who runs a family-run Tasso’s restaurant and bar on the Southwest Expressway in San Jose.
“We will open and go (back) to normal life. I like that, “Perakis said Friday.
Like many restaurateurs, Perakis has tried to stay afloat with dining and some outdoor dining, but said spending on outdoor tents, heaters and low customer traffic means businesses have fallen by up to 70%. He added that there is no way to exaggerate the difference that the indoor restaurant makes.
“People like security and they don’t like being outside in the cold,” he said.
The changes were announced amid a wider expansion of vaccinations, as well as declining case rates and hospitalizations. They also signal a change with the county’s alignment closer to the state’s coronavirus guidelines: Criticism has been leveled against county leaders and its health officer, Dr. Sara Cody, for months for implementing stricter rules. than other counties.
“With vaccinations now reaching the wider community, including more than half of those aged 65 and over, we are making significant progress in protecting the most vulnerable members of the community,” Cody said in a statement. “As things get better, it is still important for everyone to continue to practice basic prevention measures: covering the face, social distancing and doing as much outdoor activity as possible.”
The new guidelines in the county regarding outdoor gatherings require a person to wear a face covering only if they are six meters away from a person outside their household. In addition, people can now sing at outdoor gatherings without covering their faces, as long as they are six meters away from others.
A statement from the county to the news organization added on Friday that officials “have established that the benefits of expanding outdoor activities, where the risk of transmission is much lower, outweigh the risks.”
Most youth sports are allowed to resume, with the county repealing its rules in favor of state guidelines issued late last week, which allows high-contact outdoor sports in any county with a lower per capita case rate. from 14 to 100,000 residents. Santa Clara County announced Monday that it will abide by the new state rules.
With 5,525 new cases reported on Thursday, according to data compiled by the news organization, the California average in the last week fell to its lowest point in the first week of November, while the number of Californians hospitalized with COVID-19 fell below 6,000 for the first time before Thanksgiving.
Gov. Gavin Newsom told a news conference in Fresno on Friday that the state now receives about 1.6 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines each week from the Biden administration and that 8.24 million outbreaks have been reported. administered in California since Friday.
He expects vaccination rates to continue to rise with the early approval of a Johnson and Johnson vaccine that represents a new flexibility in vaccinations, given that it consists of just one shot – current vaccines require two doses spaced between three and four weeks – and they do not need special refrigeration.
However, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has continued to work in light of the growing number of national cases over the past three days, which has led her to be cautious that gains in places like California could to stop. if restrictions are eased and new, more contagious virus variants continue to spread.
“We may be done with the virus,” Walensky told a White House news briefing on Friday, “but clearly the virus is not over with us.”
Employees Evan Webeck, Laurence Miedema and The Associated Press contributed to this report.