BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Kern County is facing a Regional Stay at Home Order that will go into effect Sunday at 11:59 p.m. in the San Joaquin Valley region.
This order comes after The San Joaquin Valley's ICU capacity fell below 15 percent.
Due to this, certain industries must close including hair salons, barbershops, museums, movie theaters, playgrounds, and all outdoor dining must end.
Many restaurants 23ABC spoke with say they believe there are other solutions and fear this order will be even more difficult than previous ones.
Jerry’s Pizza and Pub owner, Corina Topete, believes they should be allowed to continue outside dining.
"Even if we could do it at 20 percent we would be ok, but we aren’t even allowed that," said Topete.
"It is frustrating when we go to a store like Walmart or Costco and they are beyond their capacity and no one is checking or counting."
The downtown restaurant shares on Saturday they laid off nearly their entire staff because of the order.
Adding they invested, so much into safety measures during the pandemic and even gained a permit to allow outside dining in the Wall Street Alley.
"We have probably invested about $5,000 into chairs, heaters, awnings canopies, and just things we wouldn’t typically have to run our restaurant with on a daily basis," Topete said.
Just a few blocks away, Chef’s Choice Noodle Bar, too, received a permit to have outside dining.
The family-owned restaurant says their outside dining equipment costs around $7000 for the full tent setup.
Cameron Carrillo, the assistant manager at Chef’s Choice Noodle Bar, says they understand the necessity of the order but says it will be a challenge.
"I want everyone to be safe and everyone to be healthy and we care about our customers," said Carrillo. "If this is what it takes for our customers and everyone in Kern County to remain safe that's what we will have to do."
According to the California Department of Public Health, the order will remain in effect for at least three weeks.
And it will only be lifted when a region's projected ICU capacity meets or exceeds 15 percent.
The department says this will be assessed weekly after the initial three-week period.
