The new state guidance for reopening while living amid the COVID-19 pandemic presents a framework for short-term recovery, but it also raises questions about more job losses and business closures.
Color coding by county now shows what operations and facilities can be open and at what capacity.
Under previous guidance, some businesses were allowed to operate at higher capacity levels, but for many it’s been lowered to 25%, Rachel Michelin, president of the California Retailers Association, told the Northern California Record.
“We need more partnerships when it comes to industry-specific restrictions,” Michelin said. “At this point the state has the data that shows what is driving these decisions, and I think that it’s what we are waiting to see.
“Show data from industries to show their justification for the guidelines they are putting on industries.”
The 25% threshold includes employees, which means stores won’t be able to do as much hiring, Michelin said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom noted in a news release that the plan is designed to be stringent and slow. “We have made notable progress over recent weeks, but the disease is still too widespread across the state,” Newsom said.
For businesses near the precipice of closure, many more months of restrictions could shut them down permanently.
“I think that’s the big message – some constraints are going to be with us until we can get the pandemic under control and into the past,” Dr. Jeffrey Michael, executive director of the Center for Business and Policy Research in the Eberhardt School of Business and Professor of Public Policy in the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific, told the Record.
“With this color coding it’s going to take a bit longer to move into the next phase of reopening,” Michael said. “For some industries, they’re less restrictive than in the past, and for others it’s more restrictive, and it will be a slower path out.”
“Some industries, even if you get to the yellow [least restrictive] tier, you’re still at 50 percent capacity,” Michael said. “The one discussed the most is restaurants, and it’s for the foreseeable future, until the emergency is over.”
Remaining open is key to economic recovery.
“I don’t know when companies can become fully operational; it depends on the type of business,” Robert Rivinius, executive director of the Family Business Association of California, told the Record by email. “In the food service and hair industries, as an example, they have been opened and closed and opened and closed, so this creates much uncertainty for both business owners and employees. We need consistency.”
“I’ve been told, but cannot document, that we have lost 1,200 businesses just in the Sacramento area,” Rivinius said. “Many are gone for good. We have to make sure the cure is not worse than the disease.”
Meanwhile, how the blueprint spurs or slows California’s economy remains to be seen.
“When you talk about job creation and recovery, you need to have consistency in industries,” Michelin said. “We are asking for clarity and consistency that’s fundamentally based on the data.”