Restaurants and aquarium have the option to open at 75 percent under vaccine requirement

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) California announced that restaurants and aquariums can open at 75% if they require customers to show proof of a recent negative COVID test or that they have been fully vaccinated.

The state of California announced that restaurants and aquariums within the Grange and Yellow tiers may open to 75% capacity if all customers can show proof of a negative COVID-19 test or proof of full vaccination.

Monterey County has been in the Orange tier which only allows for 50% capacity. The Monterey County Environmental Health Bureau, the institution that is responsible for health inspections for restaurants and markets sat that as long as the state is giving the green light, restaurants in Monterey County are allowed to follow it.

"We do encourage restaurants to follow the guidance as it's written. If they follow those guidances and come up with their ways to follow the guidance, we're all for it," says Ric Encarnacion, the Acting Bureau Chief for MOCO Environmental Health Bureau.

The owner of Rosine's Restaurant, John Culcasi, on Alvarado Street says they don't plan on implementing a policy like this right now but could in the future.

"Maybe a couple of weeks when a lot of our customers are fully vaccinated and then that could become more of an option for us. I don't believe that all of our customers at one time are actually fully vaccinated to utilize that 75%," says Culcasi.

For the Fish Hopper in Cannery Row, they see lines out the or during the weekends and believe it may be hard to implement.

"I think that's wonderful for businesses especially for small businesses that are struggling right now, I think that's wonderful. I'd say that'd be really hard to regulate it," says the manager.

As for making sure restaurants are playing by the rules, the acting bureau chief says it's not about being regulated 24/7 but rather doing things right on their own.