Back to purple tier: Local restaurant owners and diners shifting back to outdoor dining
Riverside County is lifting the stay-at home order and moving back into the purple, most restrictive tier.
Within this tier, restaurants that have been some of the most impacted by the pandemic can now reopen to outdoor dining in addition to takeout.
News Channel 3 spoke with some local restaurant owners from Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio to get their reactions, when they plan to reopen, and if they received enough notice of this most recent change.
“As soon as we got the word to open up the patio we went ahead and opened up the patio," said Juan Valencia, owner of El Mexicali Cafe in Indio.
Several restaurant owners said it has been a long time coming but unfortunately not all restaurants were ready to reopen on such short notice.
“It’s really hard to get all the employees back," Kelly Sloan, owner of Sloan's Restaurant said. "Nobody’s here to open today. We can’t do it. Plus, we don’t have the food, we don’t have the liquor so we have to restock and restaff so we will be open tomorrow for sure," he added.
Some restaurant owners also told us they are reluctant to reopen outdoors this time around and said they hope it lasts.
Governor Gavin Newsom lifted California's regional coronavirus stay-at-home orders Monday morning — a move that will allow for the resumption of outdoor dining, as well as at least some services at gyms, barber shops and nail salons, among other businesses.
Counties will return to the color-coded tier system, with most counties returning to the 'purple' most restrictive tier, including us here in Riverside County.
You can review the 'purple' tier restrictions HERE.
Officials with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) made the announcement, lifting the order for all regions statewide, including the three regions that had still been under the order (San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area and Southern California.)
Officials said that four-week ICU capacity projections for these three regions are above 15%, the threshold that allows regions to exit the order. The Sacramento Region exited the order on January 12 and the Northern California region never entered the order.
"It's been depressing to see so many long time businesses and restaurants – staples of different areas – close because of the lockdowns and everything," said Andrew Humphries in downtown Palm Springs. "It's uplifting to know that they're gonna be able to resume business again."
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