From beach parking lots to bars and wineries, significant reopenings announced Friday

Governor releases guidance on reopening a wide range of activities and businesses, perhaps as early as June 12

By PAUL SISSON, LORI WEISBERG, JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH

JUNE 5, 20204:18 PM

Everything seemed to change Friday, with word of large-scale loosening of social-distancing requirements arriving even as some health providers in the region said they are seeing increased pressure on medical resources.

The biggest revelation came in the early evening when Gov. Gavin Newsom released long-awaited guidelines for the reopening of a wide range of businesses and organizations including schools, childcare, day camps, casinos, media production, professional sports without live audiences, campgrounds, hotels, card rooms, satellite wagering facilities and racetracks, family entertainment centers, restaurants, bars, wineries, fitness facilities, museums, galleries, zoos and aquariums.Some organizations on the list could reopen as early as June 12, but many would need county approval and all would need to prove that they can meet lengthy rules specified by the state. 

County supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Friday afternoon that local government will study the latest developments over the weekend and communicate how the process will move forward.ADVERTISINGAds by Teads“We’ll have more updates next week around the timeline for when we’ll be able to do it,” Fletcher said.San Diego Zoo Global, which operates the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park, released a short statement Friday that indicated it is “delighted” that guidance has been released.

“We will take the next couple of days to determine our timeline for opening and expect to have information to share early next week,” the statement said.Even without that announcement, it would have been a huge day on the getting-back-to-normal front with county officials announcing that, starting Tuesday, beach parking lots, closed for months to help prevent spread of the novel coronavirus, can reopen. Active sports on the beach can also resume, Fletcher said, provided the action remains among those living in the same household.

The supervisor noted that, while the county has removed barriers for wider beach access and activity, the ultimate timing and execution of such changes are up to individual cities and the state, which manages several stretches of sand from San Onofre Sate Beach in the north to Silver Strand State Beach in the south.“They can be more restrictive if they choose,” Fletcher said.There was even a little something for those who’ve had a growing itch to catch some fish.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Friday that six of the San Diego region’s most popular lakes will reopen for boating, fishing and other recreation over the next two months. El Capitan Reservoir and Upper Otay Reservoir are scheduled to reopen for public use this Saturday, followed by San Vicente Reservoir the following Saturday, June 13.Lake Hodges, Sutherland and Barret reservoirs will end lockdown restrictions on July 1, 3 and 8, respectively, according to local leaders.Miramar, Murray and Lower Otay reservoirs have been open since May. T

he first two of those lakes are largely used by bikers and walkers, not boaters.Ocean sportfishing remains closed in San Diego, despite a number of other regions around the state allowing the business to resume. Advocates hope the decision to reopen will come down from county health officials within days.“I’m sitting literally on the edge of my seat waiting to hear from them right now,” said Ken Franke, president of the Sportfishing Association of California, which is based in San Diego.

Hotels

Local hotels, which as recently as May 22 were warned by county health officials to stop marketing their businesses for staycations and leisure stays, were cheering the news late Friday that they can soon reopen for business, provided they can meet state safety requirements. Many hotels have been shut down completely since mid-March while others have stayed open to accommodate health care workers, which has been allowed.“This validates what we always knew, that hotels are very safe spots, and we have always been perplexed why we were on the reopening list behind restaurants that don’t have the sophisticated safety protocols we have,” said Bill Evans of Evans Hotels, which owns and operates the Bahia and Catamaran resorts on Mission Bay and The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. All three of his hotels have remained open for medical workers. “Many hotels are cleaner than the houses people come from. Hotels have been hemorrhaging money, we’ve been off 90 percent in revenue so this hopefully will allow us to get back to a break-even point.”

Of the San Diego County hotels that have remained open throughout the pandemic, they’ve averaged, more recently, occupancy rates of 35 percent. Pre-pandemic, occupancy levels this time of year are closer to 80 percent. Evans expects the latest order from the state will slow the exit of locals who have been going to Nevada and Arizona where there have been looser restrictions for overnight stays.

Elvin Lai, whose 71-room Ocean Park Inn in Pacific Beach recently underwent a renovation of all its guest rooms, said hotels had been “praying and hoping” for weeks that the word would come down from the governor’s office that they could resume operations. Normally in July, a peak month for Lai’s business, he would take in roughly $700,000 in revenue. Optimistically, he’s expecting to get back to 40 to 50 percent occupancy levels in the next couple of months.“I understand we won’t be sold out like we normally are because people are still wary about traveling,: said Lai. “When news gets out that travel is open, I think we’ll get people from our drive market, people inside San Diego County. So I’m optimistic, but not naively optimistic, that we will have some semblance of a summer again.”The state Department of Public Health has released a 15-page document detailing steps that should be taken for safely reopening hotels and short-term rentals.

Among the cleaning recommendations is a suggestion that rooms should be left vacant for 24 to 72 hours after a guest has left.HospitalsThe news came as there was fresh evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to put a significant strain on some parts of the regional health care system. Chris Van Gorder, chief executive of Scripps Health, said Mercy Hospital, which has campuses in Hillcrest and Chula Vista, has temporarily stopped accepting new COVID patients due to shortages of available critical care staff. The situation, he said, is caused by increases in local admissions and transfers of patients from Imperial County which has seen higher-than-average numbers of CoV-2 infected patients for weeks.“We are seeing our highest COVID census yet - now up to 113,” Van Gorder said in an email. “Both Scripps Mercy campuses closed to more cases until we can open up the correct beds and staff.”Scripps officials said the health system has accepted a total of 11 patients from Imperial County in the past two days.

Cathy Kennerson, chief strategic officer at El Centro Regional Medical Center, said in an email Friday afternoon that the facility has seen a significant surge in COVID patients this week that it believes is linked to Memorial Day weekend. Transfers to other hospitals, she said, have been averaging 10 per day to San Diego and other counties with available beds.Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health director and public health officer, said Friday that no similar surge of new patients has been detected in association with the Memorial Day holiday, which is now nearly two weeks in the past.She did not express any concerns over Scripps assertions that transfers and local cases have strained critical care personnel to the point where it’s necessary to hit the pause button on new cases at Mercy.“Eventually, these things work themselves out,” Wooten said.

“We are monitoring what’s going on and we will continue to do so.”At Scripps, Van Gorder added in the early evening Friday, there was also a significant victory. After more than 70 days at Scripps Green Hospital in Torrey pines — 54 of them spent on a mechanical ventilator — a husband, father and grandfather was discharged. The man was the father of a Scripps nurse who donated her own blood plasma to treat her dad’s COVID infection.“This is what it’s about,” Van Gorder said.The region’s top public health cop also spoke directly to protestors Friday, for the first time urging all who have been marching in recent days, and anyone who has cleaned up after those protests, to get tested. Anyone who needs more information on how to do so can call 211 to receive a list of locations or can contact their health care provider and make a request.

 Fletcher and Wooten reported 240 new COVID cases Friday, the largest single-day total reported in recent months, pushing the pandemic case total in San Diego County to 8,180. That’s nearly 100 more new cases than were reported just one day earlier, but officials said that’s because the public health department received a large batch of 5,936 test results Thursday, including many that should have been reported earlier.The COVID-related death total in San Diego County reach 294 Friday, an increase of six people whose ages ranged from 46 to 94.

Jonathan Wosen contributed to this report.

Original article can be found here.