Businesses react to California's regional stay-at-home order

CHICO, Calif. - Thursday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new stay-at-home rules that will trigger when a region’s intensive care unit capacity falls below 15%.

Butte County falls under the greater Sacramento region. Glenn, Tehama, Modoc, Trinity, and Shasta counties fall under the Northern California region. As of Dec. 4, none of the regions have fallen below 15%.

In Chico, several owners are worried about their businesses if they have to close under this new order.

On Friday, several people were inside the Meriam Nails and Spa in Meriam Park.

The owner of the salon, D Nguy, said his business has been slow since the county went back into the purple tier and if the stay-at-home order does go into effect he would have no other way of making money.

“Yeah, it is kind of sad for me if I have to shut down again,” said Nguyn. "I need money to pay for the rent. I have to pay for my employees even if they stay at home. I have to keep my employees wanting to come back to work after the stay at home order.”

Nguyn said the salon would follow the stay-at-home orders and shut the business down. He hopes if this does happen, it won't be for long so he doesn't have to close for good.

Businesses in Chico, like Mariscos La Costa, say they have a plan but are not sure that it will be enough. The restaurant has been following the purple tier guidelines.

The owner of the restaurant Victoria Sandoval told Action News Now, the restrictions of this tier have already hurt her family-owned business and a potential stay-at-home order could hurt their business and employees even more.

“I need to provide jobs for the kids," said Sandoval. "Now we just try and figure out what else to do. If they shut us down, we don't know."

Sandoval said she only has five employees working at the restaurant currently to do take-out services. Her plan for the restaurant would be to try and continue doing take-out orders so that her employees can have some source of revenue.