Coronavirus: Contra Costa County retail businesses begin to reopen curbside pickup

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Starting Tuesday at 6 a.m., retailers in Contra Costa County will be allowed to reopen for curbside pickup. This is part of Phase 2 where safety measures will still need to be implemented.

"We want our presence to be felt we don't want people to think that we are gone or disappeared from the face of the earth. We are here but we don't know how we are going to survive," said Zebra's owner Moe Delfani.

The legendary 36-year-old tattoo and piercing business is a go to for celebrities and locals. They're glad they are part of phase 2 of the reopening process, but tattoos are out the question. Selling piercing and gift cards is their only option for now.

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"Normally we would be here to help them through their healing process and any complications and they haven't had anywhere to go. So now they can come to the door at least and get a free consultation," said Delfani.

Even though COVID-19 cases have gone down in Contra Costa County, Dr. Farnitano, Health and Safety officer for this county says they still need to take it step by step.

"We will still have to move into later stage 2 of opening offices and stage 3 will be restaurants and small gatherings. Very large gathering won't be until step 4," said Dr. Farnitano.

RELATED: 6 Bay Area counties relax some shelter-in-place restrictions

A key factor before entering phase 3 is having more testing sites. Contra Costa County has 6 county run testing sites and 3 state run testing sites.

"We are currently doing about 500 - 600 tests a day. We want to be doing over 2,000 test a day," said Dr. Farnitano.

Other businesses like Bourbon Highway Country Bar and Kitchen opened two week ago for pick up but their business depends highly on gatherings. That's entering phase 4, so the wait will be even longer.

RELATED: Everything we know about CA businesses opening and what comes next

"Very uncertain right now as to what exactly is going to happen. We've heard recently that they want glass walls in between tables and for tables to be 6 feet apart which the cost for that is going to be crazy," said Justin Ferrara, co-owner of Bourbon Highway Country Bar & Kitchen.

Starting tomorrow retailers in Contra Costa County will not be allowed to display merchandise for sale on tables outside their stores and customers will have to wait outside for their order.

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