‘Rent’s not going down, but our sales will.’ Merced businesses hit by more COVID-19 closures
Warnings during the past few weeks of another round of business closures — if rising coronavirus numbers continued — came to fruition Wednesday, as Gov. Gavin Newsom reordered stricter limitations in Merced and 18 other counties.
With just a few days left until the 4th of July weekend, bars and breweries must close, effective immediately.
Indoor operations for restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters, card rooms, bowling allies, arcades, zoos and museums are ordered to shut down. Restaurants with outdoor patios are allowed to seat patrons in those areas, and takeout and delivery are still allowed.
“Its disheartening that our numbers continue to go up and that this is a consequence of that,” said Merced Mayor Mike Murphy. “I don’t know how much longer our businesses, particularly the hospitality industry, can continue under these constrained circumstances,” he added.
The governor’s announcement came Wednesday as Merced County’s total coronavirus infections reported since the beginning of the pandemic climbed to 1,131. Total hospitalizations reported since March rose to 99, and 7.67% of county residents who have been tested were positive.
Active cases tally 610 and active hospitalizations 24, according to Merced County Department of Public Health. Nearly 400 new cases and almost 30 additional hospitalizations have been reported in a week.
Neighboring Fresno, Stanislaus and Tulare counties were also among the 19 counties subject to the order.
Each of those counties have spent at least three consecutive days on a watch list of counties whose COVID-19 statistics have risen out of compliance with state parameters, according to California Department of Public Health numbers.
Merced County was flagged by the state Monday for elevated disease transmission, increasing hospitalizations and limited hospital capacity back under control.
The governor’s Wednesday orders will be in effect for a minimum of three weeks — and may be extended based on local epidemiological indicators. Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services on Wednesday launched strike teams to enforce it. OES will work with local health officials to target businesses that aren’t complying.
Business owners, officials frustrated
County Supervisor Daron McDaniel said he was frustrated that Newsom “jumped the gun” on hammering down state-mandated restrictions Wednesday.
Previously, counties were told they had a 14-day window to turn their act around before the state interfered. The County Public Health Director Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp said Tuesday that Merced’s metrics had been outside of state thresholds for almost a week.
McDaniel said he wished the governor had stuck to the 14-day plan and given the county more time.
He said the state’s business-specific restrictions may not be particularly effective in targeting Merced County’s recent case spike. “We know our numbers are from family clusters from Father’s Day weekend and Memorial Day weekend, we anticipated this happening,” he said
Newsom’s major rollback came after he recently ordered bars closed in some counties Sunday and mandated wearing face masks the prior week.
Mark Purnell, co-owner of Five Ten Bistro at 510 W Main St., said Newsom’s earlier restrictions suggested that more closures were on the way, so he was not surprised when he heard the news buzzing about the latest response during the restaurant’s lunch rush Wednesday.
“I think its a little too strict,” Purnell said of the closure, adding, “It’s sad for us.”
Purnell said the restaurant crew finished out lunch and will take care of the night’s dinner reservations. Then, inside dining will close until further instruction from state or county health officers. Outside patio seating will likely continue, with efforts to keep diners comfortable amid the stifling Merced summer heat.
When Five Ten Bistro reopened after the first round of closures, Purnell said patrons were truly excited to come back and dine in. Sales during those days compared to the same period the prior year were actually up 15-25%, he said.
“We came back and it seemed like everyone wanted to eat and enjoy themselves,” Purnell said. “Then this happened, so we’re down again.”
Customer capacity has dropped by about half, he said. Meanwhile, the building’s rent is just as expensive as before, leading the restaurant owners to question whether to resign their lease at the end of the year.
“If this is the new normal, rent is not gonna go down for us but our sales will go down,” Purnell said.
Five Ten Bistro will prioritize keeping its current employees at work, Purnell said, noting that some jumped off unemployment benefits to return.
Melissa Eisner, owner of Coffee Bandits in downtown Merced, said the Wednesday order will not impact her business too much, as she was already operating at reduced capacity, mostly doing to-go orders and outdoor operations.
“It’s not fun, but I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep our community safe,” Eisner said. “We’ve seen a lot of support. Our community (has been) totally wonderful. Nobody’s really complained about anything. Mostly they are just happy to have us open again, and happy to come back, get their coffee and say ‘hi.’”
Oscar Torres, co-owner of J&R Taco in downtown Merced, had mixed feelings about the latest round of closures, saying he can see both sides of the issues. On one hand, Torres said he needs customer support as a business. “On the other hand, I feel that there is a need to stop the COVID-19 numbers from going up,” he said.
“Seeing how the numbers are increasing, especially in Merced, a couple days ago, 80-something people got infected just in one day or two days. And we want to avoid that.”
Eddie Beltran, owner of CUE Spot Billiards, which has a bar, said customers had been complying very well to social distancing and COVID-19 rules when the first round of business restrictions were lifted. “We thought we were going to get back on track again. You can’t make up for the time you closed, but we were doing really good,” Beltran said.
With the latest round to closures expected to last three more weeks, Beltran said business is going to be tight. “We got all new inventory, we had gotten rid of all of our old inventory,” he said. “Personally if I think if they are shutting us down again for three weeks they are just guessing. We are probably going to be shut down for a lot longer than than that. So, it’s a really, really hard thing to go through again.”
More local precautions
As the 4th of July approaches, county officials announced Wednesday that Lake Yosemite in Merced, Henderson Park in Snelling and Hagaman Park in Livingston will close to the public starting Friday through Sunday.
“This was a collaborative decision as we see increased cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations in Merced County; to take preventive measures not to overwhelm our local health care system,” a statement from the Merced County Sheriff’s Office read on Facebook.
The decision was made in partnership with Merced County Public Health and the Merced County CEO’s office. County officials cautioned Wednesday that if the holiday weekend results in another rise in cases, Merced County will be “at severe risk for an extended shutdown of various parts of the economy.”
Although McDaniel felt Newsom’s Wednesday order went too far, he asked residents to be smart over the weekend, as case spikes have been traced to increased gatherings during holidays.
“Social distance, wash your hands, make wise choices,” he said.
In a plea to Merced residents Tuesday, the Merced County Health Director asked for help controlling the situation. Nanyonjo-Kemp urged residents to take social responsibility, hold each other accountable and follow the science of solid sources like the Center for Disease Control that show what measures work in curbing the virus’s spread.
“Numbers are rising not just with respect to positive cases just because we have more testing, but the number of hospitalizations are rising, including here in Merced,” Murphy said. “Even some additional increase in mask wearing has shown to have a positive impact on reducing the number of cases and number of hospitalizations,” he added.
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 6:59 PM.