Orange County moves into less restrictive Red Tier and more business sectors to reopen

State officials announced that Orange County officially moved off the Purple Tier, the highest and most restrictive level on the blueprint for reducing COVID-19 in the state, and into the Red Tier as of Tuesday Sept. 8, allowing restaurants, places of worship, movie theaters and gyms to reopen some indoor operations with restrictions.

“This is great news for our entire community,” Mayor Katrina Foley said. “Also, it is proof positive that our hard work has paid off by socially distancing and wearing masks. Let’s stay the course and get to the next tier and get us back even closer to our normal lives.”

According to the state website https://covid19.ca.gov/ schools can re-open in a systemwide manner (without a waiver) once a county is in the Red Tier for at least two weeks. There will then be a 14-day wait for all K-12 schools in Orange County to be eligible for re-opening in-person education, which will put our county schools on track for Sept. 22.

A listing of some of the activities and businesses now re-opened and/or expanded today are as follows:

  • Restaurants
    • May re-open for indoor dining with modifications
    • Capacity must be limited to 25 percent or 100 people, whichever is less
    • Must close every night by 10 p.m.
  • Places of Worship
    • May re-open indoors with modifications
    • Indoor activities must be limited to 25 percent of capacity or 100 people, whichever is less
  • Shopping Centers
    • May re-open with modifications
    • Indoor capacity must be limited to 50 percent for shopping malls, destination shopping centers, and swap meets
    • Common areas are closed
    • Reduced capacity shopping center food courts (see Restaurants guidelines for more details)
  • Retail
    • May re-open with modifications
    • Retail capacity must be limited to 50 percent
  • Hair Salons and Barbershops
    • May re-open indoors with modifications
  • Personal Care Services (nail salons, body waxing, tattoo parlors, piercing studios, skin care & cosmetology, and massage services)
    • May re-open indoors with modifications
  • Gyms and Fitness Facilities
    • May re-open indoors with modifications
    • Capacity must be limited to 10 percent
  • Movie Theaters
    • May re-open with modifications
    • Capacity must be limited to 25 percent or 100 people, whichever is less
  • Family Entertainment Centers
    • May re-open outdoor only with modifications for activities such as go-kart racing, mini golf, and batting cages
  • Wineries
    • May be open outdoors only with modifications
  • Museums, Zoos and Aquariums
    • May re-open indoors with modifications
    • Indoor activities must be limited to 25 percent of capacity

For more on what this means for Costa Mesa and the County, please visit https://covid19.ca.gov.