Now you see it, now you don’t: Some Sonoma businesses reclosing

Well that was nice -- while it lasted.

For a few short weeks, indoor dining, museums visits and even drinking in a pub were almost-new experiences, savored for the first time in four months.

But as rising numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations overtook positive trends in Sonoma County, state public health officials ordered all county bars without food service to close, put an end to indoor dining service as well as visits to museums and entertainment centers.

The health order from the state Department of Public Health went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday. It adds Sonoma County to a list of at least 29 other California counties facing reinstated restrictions driven by a wave of summertime coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.

On Monday, July 13, Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded the ban on indoor commercial activities to all of the state’s 58 counties, not just the 30 already on the state’s “watch list.”

He ordered every county in California to close indoor restaurants, movie theaters and wineries on Monday. He also ordered bars to cease all operations, indoor and outdoor, throughout the state.

“It’s incumbent upon all of us to recognize soberly that COVID -19 is not going away any time soon, until there is a vaccine and/or an effective therapy,” said Newsom.

Patio dining service, outdoor wine tasting and other open -ir commercial activities are still allowed. Bars that don’t serve food must close all operations, indoors and outdoors.

Counties like Sonoma, that appear on the state’s watch list, are also required to close indoor operations of fitness centers, places of worship, offices for non-critical sectors, hair salons and barber shops, nail salons and indoor malls. That includes museums, unless they can operate outdoors.

The Sonoma Valley Museum of Art - which had just reopened on July 1 and has now closed again - tried to make the best of it. “We will continue current on-line offerings, and we are developing even more on-line content,” said Linda Keaton, the museum’s executive director. “August 2 is right around the corner, and we hope to be back open to the public soon,” she said, optimistically expecting a 30-day period for the governor’s order.

“This is not what any of us wanted to see happen,” said 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin. “Please be safe and take this order seriously.”