California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly gave new guidelines Tuesday for reopening theme parks and sporting events in the state.
He added all personal care services may resume operations indoors with modifications in Tier 1, which is widespread and purple, including tattoo parlors, hair removal and massage businesses.
“Based on a number of conversations, we are moving all personal care services able to resume operations indoors with the stated modifications in Tier 1, that is the purple tier. We started out with hair salons, barber shops open in Tier 1, we later added nail salons and today we are adding tattoo parlors, hair removal and massage businesses,” Ghaly said. “All of those personal services as we have categorized them are now in Tier 1.”
THEME PARKS
Ghaly said smaller theme parks may resume operations in counties that are at the moderate or orange tier with a limited capacity of 25 percent or 500 visitors, whichever is fewer.
Only outdoor attractions can open and ticket sales are limited to visitors in the same county. He said examples of smaller theme parks include boardwalks or amusement park venues in counties.
Ghaly said ALL theme parks may resume operations in tier 4, or yellow and minimal, including larger parks. They will be limited to 25 percent capacity and all theme parks will implement a reservation system and screen guests in advance.
“Face coverings will be mandatory in the theme parks unless eating or drinking,” Ghaly said.
As of Oct. 20, California has 874,077 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 16,992 deaths. The number of COVID-related deaths increased by 0.1 percent from the previous day's total of 16,970.
There are many people who just can’t wait for the big theme parks to reopen and some park employees would love to go back to work as well.
But the new state guidelines coming out today could keep everything shut down for now, as getting into the yellow tier could be a real challenge. San Francisco became the only urban county in the state to move into the yellow tier Tuesday.
Orange County, which is home to Disneyland in Anaheim, is currently in the red tier.
Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett notes that the county would have to climb two levels to get to the yellow tier. And she doesn’t like the idea that attendees would have to live within 120 miles of the theme park.
Bartlett believes the theme parks should be allowed to reopen at reduced capacity if the local counties reach the “orange” coronavirus tier.
Last month, it was announced around 28,000 workers would be laid off by Disney at its parks in California and Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same month, Walt Disney Co. officials indicated the company was ready to reopen Disneyland in Anaheim, CA if the state would allow it. In September, Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences & Products appealed to Newsom.
Walt Disney World reopened earlier this summer.
OUTDOOR STADIUMS
Ghaly said sporting events at outdoor stadiums may resume in the orange or moderate tier at 20 percent operations, and in yellow at 25 percent operations. Ticket sales are restricted to customers within 120 mile radius and advance ticket sales and assigned seats are required.
Under the state's guidelines, Levi's Stadium could reopen to fans as Santa Clara County is in the orange tier, but county public health officials said in a statement, "audiences at professional sporting events will not be allowed anytime soon in Santa Clara County... as we see COVID-19 rates rising in states across the U.S., and as we enter the winter months when risk will increase, we cannot take chances with the health and wellbeing of our community and forfeit the many sacrifices that have been made to slow the spread of COVID-19."
