Some Alameda County Schools, Indoor Businesses May Reopen Soon

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Some indoor businesses and schools in Alameda County may reopen in the days to come, with safety modifications in place.

As of Friday, Oct. 9, Alameda County will allow the indoor reopenings of:

• Fitness centers (up to 10 percent capacity; restrictions on classes and aerobic exercise);
• Personal care services (except for those that require removal of face covering);
• Libraries (up to 25 percent capacity);
• Hotels, lodging for tourism (no indoor pools or fitness centers);
• Museums, zoos, aquariums (up to 25 percent capacity); and
• Outdoor film production.

On Tuesday, Oct. 13, elementary schools may reopen in accordance with state and local safety guidelines, Alameda County said late Thursday afternoon in a news release. The county may consider reopening middle and high schools in four to 12 weeks, depending on COVID-19 data trends in the future.

Depending on data trends, Alameda County said it will consider allowing the reopening of the following indoor services in the next four to six weeks:

• Retail (up to half-capacity);
• Shopping centers (including food courts; up to half-capacity);
• Dining (up to 25 percent capacity or fewer than 100 people);
• Worship services (up to 25 percent capacity or fewer than 100 people); and
• Movie theaters (up to 25 percent capacity or fewer than 100 people).

The county will also consider reopening outdoor cardrooms and satellite wagering in the next four to six weeks.

Alameda County was permitted by the state to start reopening more services when it moved into the second tier — indicating substantial COVID-19 risk — of the state's four-tiered, color-coded COVID-19 risk system Sept. 22, but county officials said at the time that they wanted to proceed with caution and take time to come up with a phased reopening plan.

County officials are still proceeding with caution and stress that reopening of indoor services will bring increased risk of COVID-19 transmission, especially in the case of restaurants, where people of different households would be removing masks and being in close proximity to one another for an extended amount of time, indoors. Indoor dining would also bring increased risk for restaurant staff.

As Alameda County eyes a move into the lower-level orange tier, which represents moderate COVID-19 risk, officials ask residents to wear masks, maintain six feet of distance from others and wash hands regularly to facilitate the move into the less restrictive tier.

The county also said it learned this week that it meets the state's COVID-19 health equity metric, meaning positivity rates in the county's most disadvantaged neighborhoods (3.8 percent) are close to the county's overall positivity rate (2.3 percent).

"By partnering with local organizations in communities that have been hit hardest, we can improve health education and increase access to critical resources to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and close the health equity gaps that preexisted this deadly virus," the county said in the news release. "This is the only way to ensure Alameda County can open safely for everyone and why we must continue to take measured steps to opening."

Read: Alameda County Moves Into Red Tier, But No Businesses Reopening

There were 21,458 cases of the coronavirus reported in Alameda County as of Friday morning, county datashows. There have been 420 deaths in the county linked to COVID-19.