Reopening of Businesses
December 6, 2020 - Regional Stay At Home Order In Effect
The State of California issued a new Regional Stay-at-Home Order that is triggered when a region falls below 15% remaining ICU capacity.
The following activities and industry sectors must now close:
- Indoor playgrounds
- Indoor recreational facilities
- Hair salons and barbershops
- Personal care services
- Museums, zoos, and aquariums
- Movie theaters
- Wineries
- Bars, breweries, and distilleries
- Family entertainment centers
- Cardrooms and satellite wagering
- Limited services
- Live audience sports
- Amusement parks
The following sectors will have additional modifications in addition to 100% masking and physical distancing:
- Restaurants: Allow only for take-out, pick-up, or delivery.
- Retail: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
- Offices: Allow remote only except for critical infrastructure sectors where remote working is not possible.
- Shopping centers: Allow indoor operation at 20% capacity with entrance metering and no eating or drinking in the stores. Additionally, special hours should be instituted for seniors and others with chronic conditions or compromised immune systems.
- Hotels and lodging: Allow to open for critical infrastructure support only.
- Outdoor recreational facilities: Allow outdoor operation only without any food, drink or alcohol sales. Additionally, overnight stays at campgrounds will not be permitted.
- Places of worship and political expression: Allow outdoor services only.
- Entertainment production including professional sports: Allow operation without live audiences. Additionally, testing protocol and "bubbles" are highly encouraged.
- Gyms and fitness centers: Outdoor operations only.
- Grocery Stores: 35% capacity
- Farmers Markets: principal business activity is the sale of food, may operate at 35% capacity
- Outdoor playgrounds are now allowed to reopen
Additional COVID Related Information
- State of CA Guidance on Face Masks
- State of CA Guidance on Private Gatherings
- COVID-19 Testing Locations (Ventura County)
How to Find Out Your Business Occupant Load
If your business does not have an Occupancy Load sign posted, please contact:
- COVID Compliance Hotline at 844-826-7367 and select 'Ventura' from the menu options. Your call will be routed to a City of Ventura representative for assistance.
- Please note: you must include staff in the occupancy calculations. For example, for a restaurant with a posted occupancy of 100, you can have 25 people indoors (25% occupancy). If you have 10 staff, then you can have 15 customers indoors.
Important steps for businesses to reopen:
Before reopening, all businesses authorized to reopen must confirm the following at www.VCReopens.com
- Begin by reviewing the guidance published by the State of California here
- Upon reviewing the guidance, complete a detailed risk assessment of your business in accordance with the state guidelines
- Complete a written worksite-specific COVID-19 Prevention Plan and post it at your business
- Implement the prevention measures identified in your worksite-specific COVID-19 Prevention Plan
- Designate an on-duty employee responsible for monitoring compliance with your plan
- Complete the attestation form here.
- Upon completing your attestation, an official from your local jurisdiction may conduct a site visit
- Post the hotline flyer form at your business so that it is visible to customers and employees. (COVID-19 Hotline Flyer)
County of Ventura COVID Business Compliance Line
For questions regarding Stay Well at Home Orders and business re-openings, please contact the County of Ventura at:
- COVID-19 Compliance Hotline: 1-844-VC-OPENS or 1-844-826-7367
- COVID-19 Compliance Email: covidcompliance@ventura.org
- You may also email or call the hotline to report a local business that is not properly complying with the County of Ventura order.
- The City of Ventura Code Enforcement Division will be performing COVID-19 prevention plan reviews with local businesses (with the exception of restaurants, dental offices, and automotive and repair shops)
- The County of Ventura Environmental Health Division will be conducting all restaurant inspections
Print & Digital Resources
A webpage that contains print and digital Coronavirus COVID-19 design resources from local, state, and national agencies. This toolkit includes social media graphics and printed materials available for download.