SAN FRANCISCO—On Thursday, June 11, the San Francisco Department of Public Health updated its public order on safety guidelines for the coronavirus pandemic, announcing that, starting Monday, June 15, some offices will be allowed to reopen with restrictions.

The city’s Health Officer explained in the announcement that the risk of transmitting the coronavirus is relatively low in a socially-distanced workplace equipped with proper sanitation supplies.

For that reason, certain non-essential office workplaces will be allowed to reopen starting at 6:00 a.m. this Monday, June 15.

This applies only to offices whose work cannot be conducted remotely. The Department of Public Health maintains that any employee who does not have to work in-person in order to fulfill their responsibilities should continue to work from home.

For those employees that will return to face-to-face work on Monday, the workplace will look different than it did pre-coronavirus.

All offices will have to limit their personnel so that anyone working in the same office space can be six feet away from coworkers at all times.

Workplaces with more than 20 people must either reduce the maximum occupancy of their facility by 20 percent or reduce the maximum occupancy to the number of people that can stay six feet away from each other. Out of these two options, companies will have to choose the one that yields fewer people in the office.

Workplaces with fewer than 20 people simply must ensure that the number of people in the office can maintain six feet of distance.

As a final stipulation for the reopening of offices, the Department of Public Health is requiring all businesses to create and utilize a “Social Distancing Protocol” that will be subject to change based on available public health updates.

In addition to the reopening of office spaces, the June 11 update also announced guidelines for the reopening of outdoor dining, in-store retail, sports tournaments without spectators, and more.