As the number of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations goes up, Southern California is shutting down.
“Everything is being shut down,” said Angel Muñoz, Chula Vista resident. “Everything from hair cut places to all kinds of stuff, so it's hard for us.”
San Diegans expressed mixed feelings over the latest closures.
“We have had other opportunities to prevent a shutdown,” said Tony Marroquin, Chula Vista resident. “I just feel like we haven't really done our best to prevent this from happening.”
“We shut down in March and it didn't really work,” said Jaymar Velar, Chula Vista resident. “So I think this three-week shutdown is really putting these businesses in jeopardy.
The regional shutdown begins Monday. Californians have been asked to stop gathering and the personal care industry, among others, has been asked to shut down.
“It’s going to hit us hard,” said Michael Acosta, owner of Mickey Lou’s barbershop in Chula Vista. “It’s going to affect our holiday season.
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Restaurants will have to stop all dining operations, retail will remain open at a 20 percent capacity and places of worship and gyms will be allowed to continue outdoor operations.
“It was a really really big sigh of relief to know that we could continue to operate outdoors as we had been,” said Maria Disla, owner of Pure Studio in Downtown San Diego.
For Disla, like for many other small business owners, it's been a tough year trying to keep up with the constantly changing restrictions.
“It definitely was a huge hit for the business and a big step we had to overcome to figure out how to keep our lights on and how do we keep things running,” said Disla.
For now, she gets to stay open but feels for the other small business owners and their employees that don't.
“We’re just going to scratch up whatever we have left from the unemployment and keep going,” said Acosta.
Fighting to survive as the state continues to fight against the growing number of infections.
