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Coronavirus surge has San Diego businesses bracing for impact, waiting for Newsom's orders Monday

Virus Outbreak California
Posted at 7:22 PM, Jul 05, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-06 02:14:46-04

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Businesses are bracing for Governor Gavin Newsom's announcement Monday after San Diego has been on the state's watch-list since July 3, due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

Newsom could announce indoor activities, like arcades, restaurant dining, movie theaters and museums will be shut down to contain the spread.

This news comes as San Diego restaurants faced a volley of changes over the past four months.

"I think that the only thing that is constant is the change," Chief Brewing Officer Mike Hess said from his Imperial Beach brewery.

He said the lucky thing about most of his locations is they have outdoor space, so they can shift more easily.

"I called everybody Friday when we got word when it might change on Monday and everybody was like ‘Okay what do we need to do?’" He said sighing.

READ RELATED: Mike Hess Brewing Company serving up a different type of alcohol

Some of the changes he's made to be compliant with health orders have come at quite a cost. He said in one pay period his labor costs at the Imperial Beach location are three times the norm because they switched from bar service to table service and have to sanitize more often.

Across town at Small Bar, Owner Karen Barnett said they shut down at the beginning of July and don't have any plans to reopen.

'At the end of the day a business is a business, people are more important.' Barnett said they have been doing take out since the beginning of the pandemic, but never reopened for dine in.

She said the small space at her business and horror stories of other restaurants and bars dealing with enforcing social distancing, wearing a mask and employees testing positive with the virus, helped her stick to her guns.

On Friday, she posted this on Instagram, "After much consideration, Small Bar will be closing for the entire month of July (possibly longer). When the global pandemic was declared almost 4 months ago, we decided to quickly switch gears and continue to serve our community as thoughtfully and safely as possible. Unfortunately, Americans both near and far don't seem to be listening as closely to science as we are. We no longer deem our services "essential". We care about our community and feel the best move right now is to take a step back for a few weeks. In the meantime, we will be working on our footprint and how we can safely reopen later. We encourage more businesses to follow our lead to help flatten the curve, yet again. We will be working on ways to serve with as little contact as possible, but until that time we wish you all health and peace in the world. Take care."

Monday we will find out if all restaurants will have to shut down inside dining, and wait at least three weeks until reopening.