Orange County will no longer require people to wear face coverings in public, but will “strongly recommend” them to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as more businesses reopen Friday under new state guidelines.
County officials on Thursday, June 11, announced a new list of businesses that can resume as California enters Stage 3 of the state’s reopening plan, including bars and breweries, gyms, movie theaters and family entertainment centers, hotels, museums and campgrounds.
The biggest news for families may be that public and private neighborhood swimming pools can also open as of Friday, with social distancing and other precautions in place. (One commenter on the Facebook livestream of the county’s Thursday press conference wrote, “Please for the love of God open the pools.”)
While nail salons, youth sports and some other activities and businesses remain closed, county Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel said she has sent the state a letter asking if those remaining sectors can reopen soon as well.
The good news for businesses and stir-crazy residents came alongside the update that Orange County now has logged nearly 8,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, which does include those who have recovered, and more than 200 deaths.
County officials have noted that the reported rate of positive tests has stayed well below the state’s 8% benchmark for proceeding with reopenings; as of Thursday it was 4.5%.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, dipped slightly since the previous two days, but remains at one of the highest levels since the outbreak began – though still within the capacity of the county’s hospitals. As of Tuesday (the most recent data the county has), there were 294 people in hospitals with COVID-19, and 142 of them were in intensive care units.
The change to the county’s mask order came after weeks of intense public criticism and the resignation of the county health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick.
Quick had issued the mask order May 22 in conjunction with the Stage 2 reopening of more businesses that were shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak. Quick abruptly quit Monday after facing threats, a protest outside her home and a Board of Supervisors whose public support for her was spotty.
On Thursday, Orange County Health Care Agency Director Dr. Clayton Chau – who took over the agency about six weeks ago and is now also temporarily serving as health officer – said that while he believes wearing cloth masks helps slow the spread of the virus, the county wanted to be consistent with state guidelines, which don’t mandate face coverings.
“This will give our business community and individuals the ability to make the most appropriate decision for them and their situation,” he said.
Asked about the rule change, Chau said, “This decision is not because of the public pushback on it and we are not taking the masks away. We strongly recommend that people wear masks.”
Masks will still be required for workers who deal with the public at grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, retail stores and the like.
Some businesses that expect to reopen Friday have taken a lengthy list of precautions to help keep their workers and customers safe.
The Camp Transformation Center owner Adel Bazzi said the floor of his Costa Mesa gym is now marked with squares that people can stay in during their workout to keep a safe distance from others. Patrons are also asked to bring a towel to spread under them on mats and equipment, they’ll be asked to wear a mask when entering and leaving or interacting with gym staff, and workouts were shortened to allow employees to sanitize everything in between classes.
“Our way of business is going to be completely different,” he said.
Bazzi said he went from more than 100 regular members to about 20, but some of those who didn’t cancel offered to pay even while the gym was closed to help him stay afloat.
While some clients are nervous about resuming group workouts, “we’re going to be OK once people come back and they see all the new rules that we’ve implemented,” he said.
John Lyons, who owns Costa Mesa’s Harp Inn, has been open a few weeks (his bar serves food and was allowed to reopen along with restaurants), but said it hasn’t been easy trying to follow the state’s rather vague guidelines.
He said he hasn’t booked some of his most popular bands because they’d draw too many people, he removed some of the furniture to allow for social distancing, and he regularly gets questions from people about what precautions the bar is taking against the virus.
“People are very divided. There is one group of people who are very happy to be out,” he said. “There are still another group of people who are still very unsure about coming out.”
