As California reopens, every business will need to create a safer, low-risk environment. If you own or manage a business, follow the guidance below to protect your workers and customers.
Reopen your business or facility safely
Follow the Employer Playbook for a Safe Reopening to help plan and prepare for reopening your business.
The playbook includes detailed information on:
- When and how an employer must report a COVID-19 positive employee.
- What is defined as an outbreak.
- Guidance for employers who may be considering whether to suspend operations due to COVID-19 spread in the workplace.
Wearing a mask or face covering is required statewide in public or common spaces. Employers must provide face coverings to workers, or must reimburse workers for the reasonable cost of obtaining them. Find all requirements and exceptions to these rules in the guidance on this page below.
The industry-specific guidance applies to businesses statewide. All businesses and facilities must follow the items listed here before reopening:
- Scroll down this page to find the guidance for your industry, business, event, or activity.
- Review it completely.
- Perform a detailed risk assessment and create a worksite-specific protection plan.
- Train employees on how to limit the spread of COVID-19. This includes how to screen themselves for symptoms and when to stay home.
- Set up individual control measures and screenings.
- Put disinfection protocols in place.
- Establish physical distancing guidelines.
- Establish universal face covering requirements (with allowed exceptions). See CDPH guidelines (PDF).
- Post your completed checklist so everyone can know the steps you’ve taken. Feel free to add more safety measures to the ones included in your industry’s guidance.
More industries are open in certain counties
Counties that have approval to do so can allow more businesses to open. Find the list of additional guidance for counties with attestations.
Industry closures
Statewide business closures
Bars, pubs, brewpubs, and breweries must close all operations both indoor and outdoor statewide, unless they are offering sit-down, outdoor dine-in meals. Alcohol can only be sold in the same transaction as a meal.
All counties must close indoor operations for the following business sectors: dine-in restaurants, wineries and tasting rooms, movie theaters and family entertainment centers (like bowling alleys, miniature golf, batting cages, and arcades), zoos and museums, and cardrooms.
Closure of indoor operations for some businesses in certain counties
Counties on the County Monitoring List must close indoor operations for the following business sectors, events, and activities:
- Gyms and fitness centers, like yoga and dance studios
- Places of worship and cultural ceremonies, like weddings and funerals
- Offices for non-essential (non-critical infrastructure) sectors
- Personal care services, like nail salons and body waxing
- Shopping malls
- Hair salons and barbershops
- Higher education (lectures and student activities – see guidance below)
Shops that offer tattoos, piercings and electrolysis may not operate outdoors and must close.
Employer policies and resources
It’s important that employees with COVID-19 know they should stay home. Your sick leave policies need to support that. Workers also need safe and reliable childcare options during the COVID-19 response. See information on:
Industry guidance for all counties
See guidance in other languages
All childcare facilities can open with necessary modifications. The updated guidance for the childcare industry provides guidelines to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety of children, providers, and families. As programs begin to reopen and other programs transition from emergency childcare for essential workers to enhanced regular operations, all providers must apply new and updated policies and requirements and must update their emergency preparedness plan.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for childcare in your facility to show employees and families that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for operation.
The updated guidance for day camps provides guidelines to create a plan for safe re-opening. Implementation of these guidelines should be tailored for each setting. Implementation requires training and support for staff and adequate consideration of camper and family needs. All decisions about following these recommendations should be made in collaboration with local health officials and other authorities, and should depend on the levels of COVID-19 community transmission and the capacities of the local public health and healthcare systems, among other relevant factors.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for day camps in your facility to show employees, campers, and families that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for operation.
The guidance for family friendly practices for employers provides guidelines for family-friendly practices to keep employees safe and be responsive to their needs in order to ensure continued productivity. As workplaces reopen, employees will require both child care supports and workplace flexibility. Work-life balance policies will become even more important and continued investment in family-friendly workplace policies by employers is critical.
This interim guidance for institutions of higher education provides guidelines to help institutions and their communities plan and prepare to resume in-person instruction.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
Indoor operations must be closed.
Review the guidance and prepare a plan to reduce the risk and support a safer environment for students, faculty, workers, and families.
Unless your county has been approved to move further in the reopening roadmap, hotels should only open for COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures, treatment measures, providing accommodation for essential workers, or providing housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations. Follow this guidance for hotels and lodging to create a safer environment for workers and customers.
Counties that have approval to move further can reopen hotels, lodging, and short-term rentals for tourism and individual travel. Follow this guidance for hotels and short term rentals for tourism and individual travel to create a safer environment for workers and patrons.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for hotels, lodging, and short-term rentals in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Limited Services are defined as those which do not generally require close contact. Follow this guidance for Limited Services to create a safer environment for workers and patrons.
Faith-based counseling can reopen within the following parameters:
- Counseling services are permissible in-person where the service cannot reasonably be practiced remotely;
- Counseling services should adopt state guidance on Limited Services, where applicable;
- This designation does not permit gatherings beyond counseling to members of a single household.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for Limited Services in your workplace to show clients and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Music, TV, and film production may resume, subject to approval by county public health officers. They will review local epidemiological data, including cases per 100,000 people, rate of test positivity, local preparedness to support a health care surge, vulnerable populations, contact tracing and testing.
To reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, productions, cast, crew and other industry workers should abide by safety protocols agreed by labor and management, which may be further enhanced by county public health officers. Back office staff and management should follow the guidance for office workspaces.
Follow this guidance for office workspaces to create a safer environment for workers.
Faith-based office workspaces can reopen within the following parameters:
- Faith-based facilities are considered “offices” only for those employed by the organization and where the facility is their regular place of work.
- The employer should implement state guidance relating to offices before reopening the facility for employees.
- This designation does not permit gatherings of non-employees, such as the organization’s congregation.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
Indoor operations of offices for non-essential non-critical infrastructure must be closed.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for office workspaces in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business
Follow this guidance for outdoor museums, open air galleries, botanical gardens, and other outdoor exhibition spaces to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. This guidance is not intended for zoos, amusement parks, or indoor gallery and museum spaces.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for outdoor museums in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
This guidance for places of worship and providers of religious services and cultural ceremonies, like weddings and funerals, provides guidelines to create a safer environment for workers and visitors.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
Indoor operations must be closed.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for places of worship and cultural ceremonies in your workplace to show workers and visitors that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Professional sports may resume training and competition without live audiences, subject to approval by county public health officers. They will review local epidemiological data, including cases per 100,000 people, rate of test positivity, local preparedness to support a health care surge, vulnerable populations, contact tracing and testing.
To reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, athletes, coaching staff, medical staff, broadcasting staff and others at sporting facilities or events should abide by COVID-19 protocols agreed by labor and management, which may be further enhanced by county public health officers. Back office staff and management should follow the guidance for office workspaces.
Follow this guidance for retailers to create a safer environment for workers and customers.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for retail in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Retailers and libraries can re-open, along with the manufacturing and logistics sectors that support retail. Drive-in and movie theaters can re-open with additional considerations.
Retail doesn’t include personal services such as beauty salons, but does include the sale of goods such as:
- Bookstores
- Jewelry stores
- Toy stores
- Clothing and shoe stores
- Home and furnishing stores
- Sporting goods stores
- Florists
Retail stores identified in the essential workforce list can open for in-store shopping. They include:
- Retail facilities specializing in medical goods and supplies
- Grocery stores, pharmacies, convenience stores, and other retail that sells food or beverage products, and animal/pet food
- Fuel centers such as gas stations and truck stops
- Hardware and building materials stores, consumer electronics, technology and appliances retail
Follow this guidance for shopping centers, destination shopping centers, strip and outlet malls, and swap meets to create a safer environment for workers and customers. Interior stores in shopping malls can do curbside pickup with modifications.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
Indoor operations must be closed.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for shopping centers in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
The support for working families guidance provides information to help you locate child care, find assistance to pay for child care, and connect you to additional supports for your family. As stay-at-home orders are lifted for additional industries to promote California’s economic recovery, the need for child care and other supports for working families increases.
The guidance for youth sports provides guidelines for all youth sports programs, including school-based, club, and recreational programs. Check the questions and answers about youth sports.
Review the guidance and prepare a plan to support a safe environment for players, coaches and trainers, families, spectators, event/program/facility managers, workers, and volunteers.
To provide your input on future industry guidance, fill out the California Recovery Roadmap survey.
Guidance for counties with attestations
Counties that have approval to do so can allow more businesses to open.
Follow this guidance for campgrounds, RV parks, and outdoor recreation to create a safer environment for workers and patrons.
Review the guidance and prepare a plan for your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Follow this guidance for cardrooms, racetracks, and satellite wagering to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Indoor operations at cardrooms must be closed in all counties. Racetracks may only operate without spectators.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for cardrooms, racetracks, and satellite wagering in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
In working with tribal governments, CDPH and DIR have released guidance on how to reopen casinos with reduced risk of transmission. Tribal governments should make determinations on when to reopen based on how they align with the current local public health conditions and the statewide stage of reopening and the Governor respectfully requests that until a surrounding or neighboring local jurisdiction has progressed into Stage 3, tribal casinos remain closed.
Follow this guidance for casinos to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for casinos in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Follow this guidance for gyms and fitness centers, including yoga and dance studios, to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Recreational team sports are not permitted and will be subject to separate guidance.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
Indoor operations must be closed.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for gyms and fitness centers in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Follow this guidance for hotels and short term rentals for tourism and individual travel to create a safer environment for workers and patrons.
If your county hasn’t been approved to move further in the reopening roadmap, hotels should only open for COVID-19 mitigation and containment measures, treatment measures, providing accommodation for essential workers, or providing housing solutions, including measures to protect homeless populations. Follow this guidance for hotels and lodging to create a safer environment for workers and customers.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for hotels, lodging, and short-term rentals in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Follow this guidance for personal care services like nail salons, tattoo parlors, and body waxing to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for personal care services in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
- Indoor operations of nail salons, skin care, waxing, and massage must be closed.
- All indoor and outdoor services for tattooing, piercing, and electrolysis must be closed.
- Some services may be provided outdoors, like nails and massage. Follow this guidance for personal care services provided outdoors to support an outdoor safe, clean environment for workers and patrons. This guidance applies to services that require touching a client’s face, like facials and waxing. This guidance also applies to esthetic services, skin care, cosmetology, nail services, and massage therapy. Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for personal care services provided outdoors at your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Follow this guidance for restaurants, wineries, and bars to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Indoor operations for dine-in restaurants, wineries, and tasting rooms must be closed in all counties. Bars, brewpubs, breweries, and pubs must close both indoor and outdoor operations in all counties unless they are offering sit-down, outdoor dine-in meals. Alcohol can only be sold in the same transaction as a meal.
For counties on the Monitoring List:
Indoor operations must be closed. Follow this guidance for restaurants providing outdoor dining, take-out, drive-through, and delivery to create a safer environment for workers and patrons.
Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for restaurants, wineries, and bars in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
Follow this guidance for zoos, museums, galleries, botanical gardens, and aquariums to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Indoor operations must be closed in all counties. Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for zoos, museums, galleries, and aquariums in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.
If your county hasn’t been approved to move further in the reopening roadmap, follow this guidance for outdoor museums, open air galleries, botanical gardens, and other outdoor exhibition spaces to create a safer environment for workers and patrons. Review the guidance, prepare a plan, and post the checklist for outdoor museums in your workplace to show customers and employees that you’ve reduced the risk and are open for business.