Fresno Mayor Lee Brand today announced that Emergency Order 2020-13 directing all individuals living in the City of Fresno to shelter at their place of residence, except to provide or receive essential services or engage in essential activities, has been modified extensively to create a process to allow businesses that are currently closed to re-open in a safe and responsible manner. The new emergency order, 2020-16 extends the modified shelter-in-place order through midnight Sunday, May 31, 2020. The new emergency order, 2020-16, was signed by City Manager Wilma Quan this morning and becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2020.
In addition to the extension, Emergency Order 2020-16 requires residents to wear protective facial coverings when entering businesses and public places, and directs the closing of all City parks, including Woodward and Roeding Regional Parks, for the weekends of May 9-10 and May 23-25, 2020. It also adds a third category of “Authorized Businesses” in addition to “Essential Businesses” and “Non-Essential Businesses.”
Authorized Businesses are defined as those businesses and activities which are not considered essential but which are still important to the economic and social well-being of the community. The first phases of the re-opening of Authorized Businesses will be those considered to be low and lower risk businesses with future phases focused on re-opening higher risk businesses. Each particular phase of re-opening will be evaluated after two weeks of operation to measure the impacts on public health indicators and phases may be rolled back if public health indicators show worsening impacts on the community.
“I’m taking a strategic approach that protects the health and safety of our community while at the same time recognizes the overwhelming need to restart our economy by gradually allowing low and lower-risk businesses to re-open following public health guidelines,” said Mayor Brand. “I appreciate the sacrifices that our residents and business owners have made during these challenging and uncertain times, and while we are still navigating uncharted waters, it’s time to lay out a sensible new course that starts the long process of rebuilding our economy and restoring our normal routines.”
The original emergency order was set to expire on March 31, 2020 and was previously extended to expire on April 12, 2020 and then again on May 6, 2020. Emergency Order 2020-16 is attached and can be found on the City’s COVID-19 page at www.fresno.gov/coronavirus/.
For the latest information on all City-issued emergency orders and other coronavirus-related decisions, call 3-1-1 or visit the City of Fresno website at www.fresno.gov.
We encourage you to visit www.cdc.gov to learn more about COVID-19 nationally, https://covid19.ca.gov/ for information on coronavirus in California and to follow the Fresno County Department of Public Health website for regular updates.
Emergency Order 2020-16 Shelter in Place Modified and Extended with Modified Appendix A