San Francisco to fully reopen on June 15

San Francisco: Staring from June 15, the city of San Francisco will fully reopen and eliminate capacity limits, according to an announcement by Mayor London Breed.

Based on the draft guidelines that the state had released in advance, San Francisco has determined that it will fully align with the state plan with some limited exceptions of extremely large events and specific institutional settings with heightened risk, such as acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and jails, Xinhua news agency quoted Breed as saying on Thursday.

“On June 15, we will be taking an incredible step forward by aligning our reopening with the state. I’m excited that the city is coming alive again and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for San Francisco,” she said, urging residents to continue to get vaccinated.

Except for schools, childcare and youth activities, San Francisco will lift much of its health order sector-specific restrictions and rescind all business sector directives.

With the impending elimination of the state’s tiered reopening system and local health directives for industry sectors, it is expected that many aspects of San Francisco businesses will return to usual operations for attendees, customers, and guests.

“Most notably, health order changes include the elimination of local capacity limits as well as local requirements for physical distancing, masking, and operational procedures and protocols in almost all instances,” the announcement said.

“With much of the health risk contained, the most important thing we can be doing now is supporting the economic recovery and revitalisation of our commercial and downtown corridors and the city,” said Kate Sofis, the city’s director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Currently, 79 per cent of San Francisco residents eligible for Covid-19 vaccination have received at least one dose.

As of June 7, the city’s case rate was 1.5 per 100,000, 25 per cent lower than the state and representing a 96 per cent decrease in San Francisco Covid-19 diagnoses since January.