Reopening San Francisco

Essential activities only

All non-essential employees must work from home.

Businesses

• Curbside retail for goods and services with minimal contact, including takeout and delivery
• Outdoor businesses (that operated outdoors as of March 16)
• All construction with protocols for small and large projects
• Hotels, hospitality, and short-term rentals for first responders and homeless, for isolation and quarantine rooms, and as needed for essential travel and other activities that the health order permits
• Office: all non-essential employees must work from home

June 1

Businesses

• Non-essential manufacturing, warehousing, and logistics with fewer than 50 onsite employees
• Non-essential curbside retail for goods, outdoor equipment rental, and limited contact services with fewer than 10 onsite employees
• Elective surgeries and dental appointments
• Limited private household outdoor services like a gardener or landscaping
• Virtual appointments for real estate, but limited in-person appointments where there are no occupants
• Professional sports practices only with approved safety plan, including regular testing
• Office: all non-essential employees must continue working from home

Childcare and education

• Daycare and preschools with stable groups of up to 10 or 12, and in-home care

Culture and recreation

• Botanical gardens
• Outdoor historical sites
• Outdoor museums
• Dog parks
• Parks, beaches, and skate parks
• Golf, with limits
• Tennis (singles-only outside a household) with no shared equipment

June 12

Outdoor dining including restaurants and bars serving food

June 15

Businesses

• Indoor retail (enclosed shopping malls could open with approved safety plan)
• All curbside retail
• All manufacturing, warehouse and logistics with no limit on the number of on-site personnel
• Non-emergency medical appointments (see guidance in health directive)
• All private indoor household services like cooks and house cleaners
• Office: non-essential employees, with limitations (working from home strongly encouraged)

Childcare and education

• Summer camps with stable groups of up to 12

Culture and recreation

• Small outdoor gatherings of up to 12, including religious services and ceremonies
• Outdoor fitness with social distancing
• Professional sports and other entertainment for broadcast, but with no in-person spectators, under approved safety plans

July 15

The SF Zoo and Gardens will open to the general public, with safety plans in place.

July 17

Closed, due to State requirements

• Offices for non-essential employees
• Enclosed shopping malls

September 1, SF in State’s Red Tier

Businesses

• Personal care services (hair salons, nail salons, barbershops, massage establishments) (outdoor only)
• Non-contact recreational activities, outdoors (includes outdoor pools with limited capacity)
• Restore opening of indoor malls at 25% capacity, with approved safety plan (closed seating areas and food court)
• Funerals, indoors with up to 12 people
• Health emergency respite centers, like cooling and cleaner air centers, indoors

Childcare and education

• Childcare and Out of School Time programs, up to 14 children
• Higher and adult education, up to 14 people outdoors (indoors requires approved safety plan)
• Specialized and targeted support services for vulnerable children and youth

September 9

Gyms and fitness centers, outdoors with limited capacity

September 14

Businesses, all with limited capacity

• Hair salons and barbershops, indoors
• Nail salons, indoors
• Massage establishments, indoors
• Tattoos and piercings, indoors
• Gyms and fitness centers, indoors
• One-on-one personal training, indoors 
• Drive-in movies, outdoors
• Family entertainment, outdoors (like mini-golf, kart racing, and batting cages, but does not include playgrounds)
• Tours buses and boats
• Hotels and short-term rentals, expanded for tourists

Childcare and education

• Community learning hubs, for children who need support in distance learning

Other activities

• Places of worship (one person at a time for individual prayer indoors, with 50 people outdoors)
• Political activities (for example, campaign offices), with limited capacity, 1 person indoors, 50 people outdoors for protests

September 21

Businesses, with limited capacity

• Museums, zoos, and aquariums, indoors with approved safety plans

Childcare and education

• Elementary schools for in-person learning, on a rolling basis with approved safety plans
  • SFUSD will continue distance learning

September 30, SF in State’s Orange Tier

Businesses, with limited capacity

• Indoor dining, 25% capacity up to 100 people (including indoor food courts in malls)
• More family entertainment, outdoors (carousels, miniature trains, Ferris wheels)
• Gyms and fitness centers inside hotels, up to 10% capacity
• Indoor malls with increased capacity, up to 50% with an approved safety plan

Other activities

• Places of worship, indoors at 25% capacity up to 100 people, outdoors up to 200 people 6 feet apart
• Political protests, outdoors up to 200 people 6 feet apart

October 7

• Movie theaters, indoors with limited capacity and no food or drinks

October 14

• Playgrounds, outdoors, with households 6 feet apart

October 20, SF in State’s Yellow Tier

October 27

• Non-essential offices, with limited capacity
• Climbing gyms, indoor, with limited capacity
• Indoor gyms with increased capacity (but no indoor cardio classes)
• Indoor personal care that includes mask removal for some services
• Outdoor higher education classes with increased capacity

Education, on rolling basis

• Middle schools for limited in-person learning, with approved safety plans
  • SFUSD will continue distance learning

November 3

Businesses, new with limited capacity

• Drive-in live performances
• Indoor dining at indoor zoos, museums, aquariums

Activities with increased capacity

• Film production, indoors and outdoors
• Real estate showings by appointment

November 13 

Rolled back, due to surge in COVID-19 cases

• Indoor dining closed at restaurants, malls, hotels, zoos, museums, gyms, aquariums, office cafeterias
• Lower maximum capacity at movie theaters and gyms (25%, up to 50 people)

November 17, SF in State’s Red Tier

Rolled back, due to major surge in COVID-19 cases

• Non-essential offices closed
• Lower maximum capacity at indoor gyms (10%)

November 29

Rolled back, due to State Purple Tier assignment

• Indoor movie theaters closed
• Indoor gyms and fitness centers closed
• Indoor museums, aquariums, and zoos closed
• Indoor services at houses of worship closed (individual prayer still allowed)
• Standalone outdoor activities at family entertainment centers closed (carousels, Ferris wheels, train rides, trampolines)
• Lower maximum capacity for non-essential indoor retail (25%)

November 30

State Purple Tier Limited Stay Home Order

• All dining and non-essential businesses closed 10 pm to 5 am

December 6

Bay Area Regional Stay Home Order, effective 10 pm

Closed

• All in-person dining, outdoors and indoors (takeout and delivery still available)
• All personal care services, outdoors and indoors, including hair and nail salons
• Indoor gyms, including one-on-one personal training
• All in-person low-contact retail, like electronics repair or dog grooming (curbside operations still open)
• All museums, zoos, and aquariums, outdoors and indoors (outdoor gardens and historic sites still open)
• Hotels and lodging for leisure (still open for essential workers and for isolation and quarantine)
• Drive-in gatherings, including drive-in movies
• Bus and boat tours
• Family recreation centers

Lowered capacity

• Indoor retail and shopping malls at 20% capacity, including grocery stores
• Outdoor gyms and fitness classes limited to 12 people
• Small outdoor gatherings limited to 12 people from the same household
• Low-contact outdoor sports (golf and tennis) only with members of 1 household 
• In-person real estate showings (must be virtual if possible)
• Youth sports (no spectators or competitions)
• Vocational and higher education (in-person only for training essential work)

December 10

Update to State health order

• Outdoor playgrounds reopening
• Small outdoor gatherings allowed between 2 people from different households
• Standalone grocery store capacity increased to 35%
• Hotels can open for out-of-state tourists, if they quarantine for 2 weeks at the hotel

Now: December 18

Travel quarantine

• People coming to SF from outside the Bay Area must quarantine for 10 days.

January 21

• Drive-in gatherings with no concessions

The following are considered to be higher-risk activities. Each will be carefully assessed based on the City’s health indicators and the best available science. We will provide regular updates on the progression of these sectors.

Business, all with limited capacity

• Increased indoor capacity at restaurants, houses of worship and movie theaters to 50% or 200 people, whichever is fewer
• Increased capacity for indoor museums, aquariums and zoos to 50%
• Outdoor live musical, theatrical and arts performances
• Expanded youth sports outdoors and indoors
• Locker rooms and showers in indoor gyms
• Indoor swimming pools
• Bowling alleys, indoors, and identified other family entertainment centers
• Contact recreational sports, outdoors
• Bars, wineries, and breweries without food (indoors)
• Convention and event centers
• Night clubs
• Performance spaces, indoors (theaters, concert halls, music venues)

Education, on rolling basis

• High schools for limited in-person learning, with approved safety plans
  • SFUSD will continue distance learning

Other activities

• Places of worship, outdoors and indoors, with increased capacity
• Non-contact recreational sports with shared equipment, indoors