By Sharon Bernstein
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – Businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area may open for manufacturing, retail with curbside pickup and warehouse distribution, health directors of five counties that make up most of the region said Monday.
The modest loosening of public health restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic comes after the number of new cases in the heavily-populated region has remained stable or decreased over a two-week period, the directors said.
The San Francisco area, which includes California’s storied Silicon Valley technology hub and the massive University of California at Berkeley, was the first in the state to report a cluster of coronavirus infections and the first to order residents to shelter at home.
In their new order issued Monday, health directors of Santa Clara, San Francisco, Alameda, and Marin Counties said residents should still stay mostly at home, and requires people to wear face coverings when they are out. San Mateo County, which includes San Francisco International Airport, updated its health orders last week.
Nearly all 50 U.S. states were at some stage of reopening on Monday as authorities eased restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus and stock markets rose on results of an early test of a potential vaccine.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
