SF Mayor Breed warns 'more restrictive action' may come to city after her French Laundry visit: report
'We’re going to have to take more restrictive action and it pains me to say that,' Breed said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}San Francisco residents should brace more severe coronavirus restrictions, Mayor London Breed said Tuesday.
The warning coincided with reports that Breed had dined at the upscale French Laundry restaurant in Napa County last month, according to reports.
Breed said rising COVID-19 cases in recent weeks could lead to stricter restrictions in San Francisco on gatherings, reduced capacity in public areas, and mandatory quarantines after traveling, FOX 2 of the Bay Area reported.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We’ve been worried for months, but now it’s real,” Breed said. “The truth is we’re going to have to take more restrictive action and it pains me to say that.”
SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR LONDON BREED ATTENDED FRENCH LAUNDRY PARTY THE NIGHT AFTER GAVIN NEWSOM
San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks outside City Hall in San Francisco on June 1, 2020. (Associated Press)
The warning by Breed came after she joined seven others at the Napa Valley restaurant on Nov. 7 to celebrate the 60th birthday of socialite Gorretti Lo Lui, a spokesman for the mayor told the San Francisco Chronicle.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Their dining area was in a partially enclosed room with a ceiling and chandelier – just like Gov. Gavin Newsom’s widely criticized birthday dinner at the restaurant a day earlier, reports said.
Breed on Tuesday said a ban on outdoor dining was under consideration, as the number of COVID-19 cases has tripled in the last three weeks in the city, FOX 2 reported. The new restrictions could be announced as soon as Wednesday, according to Dr. Grant Colfax, the city's director of public health.
“We do not expect this to stabilize anytime soon,” Colfax said during a news conference that Breed also attended. “We have more virus circulating than ever before.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}While Breed's dining experience did not technically violate Napa County’s rules at the time, they would have had she done the same thing in her own city. Just three days after dining at the upscale establishment, the mayor banned all indoor dining in San Francisco and called for reduced capacity at gyms and movie theaters, the station reported.
SAN FRANCISCO ENTERS 'PURPLE' TIER, IMPOSES NEW CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWN MEASURES
The restaurant was in the orange tier when she dined there, while San Francisco was then in the less-restrictive yellow tier. On Saturday, she said the city has been placed on California’s “purple tier” due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}As of late Tuesday, San Francisco had reported more than 15,639 total cases and at least 160 deaths, according to local health officials. Hospitalizations in the city have doubled over the past 10 days.
Breed's latest dining experience placed her among a group of other public officials in California caught flouting coronavirus rules.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the last week, Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl visited an eatery in Santa Monica just hours after she voted to ban outdoor dining at restaurants and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo visited his elderly parents’ home for Thanksgiving in apparent disregard of the Santa Clara County’s COVID-19 holiday travel warnings.
Newsom was caught dining at the French Laundry on Nov. 6, calling it a “bad mistake" afterward.
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report