YUBA CITY — Businesses in two more Northern California counties reopened Monday, with customers cautiously sipping coffee in a restaurant with masks dangling from their necks in silent defiance of the governor's statewide stay-at-home order.
Yuba and Sutter counties followed last week's lead of rural Modoc County amid pressure to restart California's economy, even as hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 continue.
At Lambert House Cafe in Yuba City, owner Natalie Lambert opened her doors for the first time since mid-March. She closed two booths to keep customers from sitting too close to each other. and all of her employees, including the cook, wore a mask.
“I'm a nervous wreck,” she said. “Everybody needs to keep their lights on and food in their bellies.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s six-week-old order requires nearly 40 million residents to remain mostly at home. Businesses not deemed essential were ordered closed until COVID-19 testing, hospital and death rates indicate the state outbreak is beginning to ease. That includes restaurants. Millions of people have been unable to work.
Restaurants have been among the hardest hit industries. Lambert said she had to layoff five people while the restaurant was closed, retaining a few employees for takeout orders and enlisting her husband as a delivery driver.
Sutter and Yuba counties are allowing restaurants, retailers, shopping malls, gyms, salons, libraries and even tattoo parlors to reopen, but only if they limit the number of people inside and enforce physical distancing.
Sutter County Supervisor Dan Flores said the decision was made not by political leaders but instead by the counties' shared health officer, Dr. Phuong Luu. Flores says county leaders have tried many times to get the Newsom administration to review their plan, but so far no one has responded.
“I don't think we can say, ‘defy the governor,’ when we don't know what the governor thinks because he hasn't responded to our request," Flores said. “We have tried over and over again to meet the governor and ask for an audience just to discuss what we’re doing and we’ve been met with radio silence.”
Newsom's office did not reply to an email seeking comment.
Most customers also wore a mask at Lambert House Cafe, except when they were eating or drinking coffee. One man, who declined to give his name, sat at a booth with an old T-shirt wrapped around his face.
Jeff Holland and his sister, Mia Holland, sat at a booth while a waitress wearing a yellow face mask took their order. Both work at fast-food restaurants where drive-thrus have stayed open during the pandemic, saying it didn't feel that different to be out. Neither wore a mask.
“I feel like we’re out every day and if it hasn’t gotten us now, we should be OK,” Jeff Holland said.
For the first time in weeks, Christy Alridge started her day at the gym on Sunday and had to watch a video about its new safety protocols. When she sent a text message confirming she had watched it, the gym owner reauthorized her key card to let her in the building. She said she was all alone at 5 a.m., so she didn't have to worry about physical distancing.
“I'm glad, and I'm all for it," she said. “I need it. It makes me feel better.”
More than 2,200 Californians have died from the coronavirus and nearly 55,000 have been confirmed to have it, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because of a shortage of testing.
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2 more Northern California counties allow some businesses to reopen - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
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