‘Time to stay close to home.’ California county begs visitors to steer clear in pandemic
With coronavirus lockdown orders in force across most of the San Francisco Bay Area, San Mateo County has become a magnet for shoppers, diners and others looking to get out of the house.
“I mean, there’s nothing open in Alameda right now and we wanted to get together with family so here we are, decided to meet up in San Mateo,” said Bilquis Ayar, KTVU reported.
But San Mateo County officials aren’t thrilled by the development.
“We are in a public health crisis with alarming rates of COVID-19 transmission,” County Manager Mike Callagy said in a statement, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“While we absolutely support our local businesses serving our local community, we do not want non-essential travel and non-essential activities, such as crossing counties for an outdoor restaurant or salon,” Callagy said, according to the publication.
“This is the time to stay close to home,” he said, the Chronicle reported.
Soaring COVID-19 cases are filling hospitals and ICUs across California, forcing some counties to reinstate stay-home orders. In the Bay Area, San Mateo, Napa and Solano counties are not yet under lockdown.
But only San Mateo is surrounded by counties with stay-home orders.
“People are so pent up and frustrated at home,” said Anne Santiago of Alameda, who visited Menlo Park for lunch, The Mercury News reported. “You have to get out and enjoy. It makes me wish I lived here. It’s nice to get a little freedom, and it’s good to help these restaurants that are struggling. Keep them open or they might shut down.”
Officials worry that outside visitors are bringing more than their money to the county, though.
“So my plea, my begging is for those people outside of San Mateo county please respect our county and don’t come to our county to shop or use the restaurants,” said San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa, KTVU reported.
Businesses just across county lines, forced to close or obey other stringent restrictions, aren’t thrilled, either.
“Part of me was like ‘Can we secede from the county? Can Palo Alto just join San Mateo?’” said Megan Kawkab, who says vehicles stream past her closed Palo Alto restaurant into San Mateo daily, The Mercury News reported.
More than 73 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 1.6 million deaths as of Dec. 15, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 16 million confirmed cases with more than 300,000 deaths.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 7:57 AM with the headline "‘Time to stay close to home.’ California county begs visitors to steer clear in pandemic."