Bars that don't serve food to close as county responds to local coronavirus surge - pbmonthly.net
Just 17 days after they were allowed to reopen June 12, San Diego County bars, breweries and wineries learned June 29 that they will not be allowed to operate, at least not in the traditional sense, starting at 12:01 a.m. July 1 due to increasing rates of COVID-19 coronavirus transmission. While restaurants will still be allowed to serve drinks with meals, no one will be allowed to stand around with drinks in their hands. The decision, announced by county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, follows a mandate from Gov. Gavin Newsom, released over the weekend, that asks bars in some California counties to close. San Diego County is not on that list. But Fletcher, backed by Dr. Wilma Wooten, the region’s public health officer, said it doesn’t make sense to wait given that local COVID-19 trend lines, though currently less severe than in other places, have been headed in the wrong direction for about a week. Bars, Fletcher said, tend to encourage the kind of socializing that makes it easier to s...