SAN DIEGO (AP) – A California judge on Thursday paved the way for all restaurants in San Diego County to resume food on the spot, marking a major, albeit temporary, setback to the order of stay at the San Diego County governor to curb the spread of coronavirus before state intensive care units run out of beds.
Governor Gavin Newsom appealed immediately and caused uncertainty for restaurant owners to consider whether to buy food and schedule staff a week before Christmas amid the possibility that their victory could soon be reversed.
The case filed in court by two strip clubs in San Diego delivered the biggest victory to California companies fighting public health orders that they say have paralyzed them financially.
San Diego High Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil said his decision Wednesday was “direct” in going beyond the strip clubs suing the county and state, Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club and Pacers Showgirls International. County officials requested the hearing to clarify its scope.
“It’s intended to encompass all the restaurants in San Diego County,” he said in a brief view that lasted less than eight minutes.
The county board of supervisors was scheduled to meet Friday in closed session to discuss the next steps. The board voted 3-2 last week to appeal any adverse decision on strip clubs, but that decision did not cover restaurants, but discussed it.
“The state of California is already appealing the decision, so whether or not the county joins it will have no impact on the outcome,” said Nathan Fletcher, the county supervisor, who supports the restrictions.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said the city was working closely with the state to understand the implications.
“No one wants our small businesses to close, but science and data show a terrible trend in hospitalizations and deaths,” Gloria said.
The air of uncertainty fell on restaurant owners as they wondered if it would reopen.
Some will reopen just for outdoor dining, said Miles Himmel, a spokesman for county supervisor Jim Desmond, who opposes state restrictions. Others are reluctant because an appeal may force them to close again after struggling to buy food and schedule staff a week before Christmas. Some reopen.
Hours after the instruction was issued on Wednesday, San Diego County had suspended enforcement of its restrictions on the ban on indoor and outdoor food and live entertainment in the 3 million county, the second most populous in the state. .
The ruling against state restrictions comes when California recorded a record 379 coronavirus deaths and more than 52,000 new cases confirmed Thursday.
Wohlfeil said in Wednesday’s resolution that the state had not shown that restaurants and strip clubs contributed to the spread of the virus or the shortage of hospital beds. He said “San Diego County businesses with catering services,” including strip clubs, are exempt from closures and “any related order” that bans live adult entertainment and goes beyond protocols. “which are no more important than essential” to control the spread of COVID -19.
The judge noted that before receiving the order to close in October, the two strip clubs operated for five weeks under their own safety measures, including keeping the strippers within 15 feet (4.6 meters) of tables, allowing no more than one stripper per stage and requiring them and other employees to wear masks.
Three restaurant owners, including one who owns several establishments in San Diego, said they planned to reopen the weekend. They did not want to be appointed for fear of being targets of officials.
Angie Weber, owner of Cowboy Star and and Butcher Shop in downtown San Diego, said she waited if officials appealed before calling her staff to return to work.
“For now, we hope the ruling is upheld and we can reopen all the security protocols we had established earlier,” Weber said in an email Thursday.
Weber’s business was between two San Diego restaurants and two gyms suing on behalf of their industries, demanding that California’s four-tier pandemic restriction system be outlawed. The judge in that case denied his request to resume activity inside.
In a similar lawsuit against Los Angeles County, a judge found the health director to have acted “arbitrarily” and failed to show that the health benefits outweighed the negative economic effects before issuing a ban on indoor and outdoor food. . But the case did not cover the actions of the state, which issued its order on Dec. 3 that kept restrictions in place that allowed only shuttle and delivery services and banned social gatherings.
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Associated Press writer John Antczak contributed to this report from Los Angeles.