Photos show what San Francisco looked like the day before residents were ordered to 'shelter in place' for 3 weeks to contain the coronavirus

Katie Canales

Mar 18, 2020, 01:36 IST

Photos show what San Francisco looked like the day before residents were ordered to 'shelter in place' for 3 weeks to contain the coronavirus

san francisco shelter in place coronavirus 19

As of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the San Francisco Bay Area is under a 3-week "shelter-in-place" order in an effort to contain the coronavirus.
The region's estimated 6.7 million people are directed to stay indoors as much as possible and can only leave for essential needs, like to go grocery shopping.
Bars, entertainment venues, and nightclubs are closed, and restaurants can only offer takeout food.
Some San Francisco businesses were already closed the day before the order went into effect, with notices posted on the front windows of bars, restaurants, and even the city's iconic City Lights Bookstore.
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The coronavirus disease has become top-of-mind for millions around the world.

It has spread to 145 countries, infected at least 190,000 people, and killed 7,500 people. The World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic on March 11, and it could take at least a year to find a vaccine that works.

For those in the San Francisco Bay Area, the reality of the virus's impact just became starker.

As of 12:01 am Tuesday, San Francisco is one of many Bay Area cities placed under a shelter in place order to prevent human contact as a means to stifle the spread of the coronavirus.

To be clear, the order is not a full lockdown, such as what both Italy and France, among other countries, have enacted within their borders. People in 6 Bay Area counties are being directed to stay inside and avoid contact with others as much as possible for 3 weeks. Law enforcement is being asked to "ensure compliance" with the order.

But the repercussions mean that restaurants and bars are shuttering for the duration of the order, and the city streets will eventually mostly clear out, save for the city's first responders and others that perform essential services.

Business Insider stepped out into the city Monday evening, just hours before the order went into effect. We saw businesses already closed, with notices hung on their doors and windows, lines formed just to enter grocery stores, and people lugging last-minute supplies and items from their offices back to their homes to gear up for the 3-week shut-in.

It was sunny in San Francisco on the day that city leaders in the Bay Area announced that 6.7 million residents would be placed under a 'shelter in place' order.

The order directs residents to stay inside their homes for 3 weeks to help stifle the spread of the coronavirus disease, which has infected at least 40 in San Francisco.

People will still be allowed to go out for a walk, a run, a hike, or to let their pet go to the bathroom, as long as they keep 6 feet between themselves and others.

And people will still be allowed to go grocery shopping, though that didn't stop residents from rushing to a nearby Trader Joe's, Safeway, and other stores.

There was a line just to get into this Trader Joe's in the city's Lower Nob Hill neighborhood when we visited Monday.

It was the same scene at Trader Joe's on Fourth Street near the Financial District.

What people won't be allowed to do is visit the hair or nail salon.

Gyms and fitness studios are also closed.

All nonessential travel via bike, car, public transit, scooter, or foot is banned.

All entertainment venues are shut down until April 7.

The award-winning musical "Hamilton" shows at the city's Orpheum Theatre. A sign posted in the entryway beyond a gate indicated it was canceled through April 30.

The city's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium had already been closed when the city banned non-essential events held in city-owned facilities on March 7.

Public transit will remain open for essential travel.

Hardware stores are one of the only businesses that are allowed to stay open throughout the 3-week order.

Restaurants can only stay open if they provide takeout food — customers are not allowed to dine in.

A sign was posted on the door of a Starbucks in FiDi stating that the store was only open for "grab-and-go."

Cannabis dispensaries are also closed for the order. A line had formed outside this one at about 4 p.m. on Monday with patrons wanting to get in before it was too late.

Other shuttered businesses included North Beach's iconic City Lights Bookstore. A notice hung on the window that included an excerpt from a Lawrence Ferlinghetti poem.

Perhaps the city's bars may be among what will be hit the hardest.

All bars and nightclubs are being ordered to close for 3 weeks.

"Closed until governor lifts it" was written on a menu or brochure that was taped to the front door of Harrington's, a bar in the Financial District.

The city's slew of pubs would have been gearing up for St. Patrick's Day festivities. Instead, holiday paraphernalia hung with bar stools stacked on top of tables inside.

Kells in the city's North Beach District is also a popular St. Patrick's Day destination.

A sign was taped to the window indicating that the bar and restaurant was closed. It read: "Trying to do our part!"

Eventually, we reached the city's hub of tech offices near the "East Cut" neighborhood. It was nearly desolate.

But this part of town had been cleared out for a while now, for the most part.

Tech companies, like LinkedIn, have been increasingly migrating their workforces to remote work in the weeks leading up to the shelter in place.

It's an adjustment that many are having to make across the country, turning in-person brainstorms into virtual meetings.

When Salesforce instituted a mandatory work from home policy for its employees, that meant that a whopping 10,000 workers stopped coming into the district every day.

Salesforce is the city's largest private employer.

Google recommended that its hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide, including in San Francisco, work from home earlier in March, long before a shelter-in-place was ordered.

Further down Market Street is Twitter's headquarters. The social networking giant made working from home mandatory for its employees on March 12.

Much of the city will come to a standstill until April 7.

The city's estimated 883,000 residents will adapt over the coming weeks to a new daily rhythm.

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