Six Bay Area counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, as well as the city of Berkeley - recently announced an extension of the shelter-in-place order that has been mandated in the Bay Area, now extended until May 31. However, this new extension brings eased restrictions, recognizing the need for certain businesses to continue their operations. Some businesses that operate outdoors will be allowed to resume operations as long as they follow proper sanitization and social distancing protocols. These include construction, real-estate, gardening, golf courses, and childcare businesses and summer camps that abide by certain new restrictions.
Although these early preventative measures have helped flatten the curve, if guidelines are relaxed too quickly and businesses reopen without the proper precaution, cases would devastatingly spike. Thus, Bay Area residents should continue wearing masks whenever they go out and maintain social distancing.
Governor Newsom has recently announced that all state parks and beaches in California will be closed after May 1st after seeing pictures of crowded beaches in Orange County. However, there has been much protest over these orders, as some public health experts push for a reopening and Newport Beach officials refused to close their beaches despite massive crowds.
In other news, an Amazon employee at a Tracy Distribution center has died due to complications related to COVID-19. The worker was last at the facility on April 1st, and was asymptomatic at that stage.
Some Bay Area companies are now experimenting with driverless cars to help deliver food and supplies, as it reduces the chance of person-to-person contact. Food is picked up from food banks and delivered to those in need. Companies that are assisting in this effort include the San Francisco startup Cruise and Nuro Robotics in Mountain View.
For more information, please visit the following websites:
Shelter-in-place:
Beach Closure:
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