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This is a developing story, and will be updated as more information is released
The Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order, which bans all non-essential trips outside the home and requires restaurants to operate only through takeout and delivery, will be extended until May 1, Mayor London Breed confirmed Monday.
The order, which is intended to slow the spread of new coronavirus (COVID-19), was initially set to expire on April 7. That said, when it was announced on March 16, Breed cautioned that the region would continually re-evaluate that date as the crisis progressed.
According to the SF Chronicle, which was the first to report on the extension, “an elected official in San Francisco” told the paper that a full announcement on the extension of the order would be made this week. The extension was also hinted at by Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors president Cindy Chavez, who during a weekend tour of county fairgrounds under conversion to shelter homeless people during the pandemic, said, “In all likelihood, we’ll have another shelter-in-place order early this week,” the San Jose Mercury News reports.
At a Monday news conference reported on by KTVU, Breed said that Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara counties (and the city of Berkeley, which operates its own public health department) had all agreed to the extension, saying “we are essentially shutting San Francisco down,” to make sure people understand “just how serious this is.” As of Monday, there are 374 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in San Francisco, and six people have died.
We're working to slow the spread of coronavirus in San Francisco, but we know that the challenges we face are going to get tougher.
— London Breed (@LondonBreed) March 30, 2020
The public health order for people to say safe in their homes will soon be extended until at least May 1. More details to come soon.
According to a press release from the Mayor’s office, more information on the shelter-in-place will be provided “in the next day or two” when its details are finalized. According to the Bay Area News Group, tweaks to the order might include “proposed modifications to allowable outdoor activities and classifications of non-essential businesses.”
It’s unclear based on that what the implications might be for the Bay Area food industry, but for now, residents are still allowed to leave the home for walks, to purchase groceries and medicine, and to get meals via takeout and delivery — and coffee shops, cafes, and restaurants are allowed to remain open for carryout and delivery business, as long as they follow social distancing rules and take other precautions against viral transmission.
