Covid19 cases are claimingimbi across the country and worldwide. They are reopening and expanding operations on tuesday but not now, not anymore. Stephanie sierra has details. Disappointing for a lot of merchants. Certainly so. San francisco is still doing remarkably well but dr. Grant colfax explained two numbers triggering the decision to pull back are the citys case rate and hospitalizations, both have increased slightly. So here is what exactly is on pause. Indoor pools, bowling alleys, locker rooms, and showers at Fitness Centers originally set to reopen november 3rd will now remain closed until further notice. Restaurants indoor museums, zoos asquakwa aquariums and indoor Worship Centers will be required to capacity at 25 . Nonessential office space without concessions stay the same. Also operating at 25 capacity. Mayor breed and dr. Colfax referenced the surge of covid cases across the world and country as reasons to take precautions before its too late. France in particular is on lockdown again in germany which is a model in the rest of the world is actually looking at restrictions. Not just what is happening here in the united states, it still challenging all over the world. We want to pause on increasing the capacity of riskier activities because we do not want the virus to get too far ahead of us because as weve seen across the country and around the world, when the virus gets too far ahead, you cant catch up. Over the past two weeks, hospitals in San Francisco went from caring for 23 patients per day to 37 patients per day. While dr. Colfax says Hospital Capacity remains good, the slight uptick could be an indicator what is to come. The mayor warned well see an uptick in cases after halloween and the upcoming holidays reinforcing the message to keep those gatherings to immediate family. The pause on reopening is a blow to some Business Owners. Abc hassan. Reporter a lot of San Francisco restaurants have been open to Outdoor Dining and many are gearing up for 50 indoor Capacity Seating next tuesday. Thats not going to happen. A lot of Business Leaders say they are disappointed but not surprised. Were making vampire juice. Reporter this chef is heading into the weekend with a change of plans. Its pretty brutal having this come up again especially now. Reporter the chef and owner at the San FranciscoFerry Building says they have been lucky during the pandemic. They increased online catering and have Outdoor Dining but some cant open due to structural or Financial Issues such as no space for Outdoor Dining. Those businesses are getting ready to open next week will have to stay closed. My heart goes out to everybody that needs to be open and have their doors open paying rent and for all the employees that are counting on work. Reporter businesses that are currently open wont face any rollbacks. Many San Francisco restaurants are operating at 25 percent Indoor Seating but were getting ready to move to 50 next week. We understand why were doing this and we feel this is the right move from a conservative perspective. Reporter Laurie Thomas is the executive director of the golden gate restaurant association. She also loaowns two restaurantn the city. She admits the pause on reopening is tough but important to play it safe. There is a hardship dealing with that but more if we have to shut everybody do you remember thats open right now. Reporter the chef says everyone will likely take a hit but adds its important for the city to work as a community. Its a smart thing for the city, rough for our businesses, smart for us as a community. Reporter if you made reservations for the next few weeks to check with the restaurant to see if they have been impacted. Stephanie . Yeah, an circle. Ive been digging into the data of how the program is working here in San Francisco. Reporter 250 contact tracers and case investigators working for the San Francisco department of Public Health. His job is to call people who tested positive for covid19 and trace their close contacts. These contacts are people who the infected person was within six feet of for for than 15 minutes. Anything we discuss with them is confidential. Reporter not only confidential but quick after a positive test result. The vast majority of our clients have always been reached within one day. Reporter this doctor leads the departments Contact Tracing program. We are very confident at this point in time we can handle any surge that m comes tore ward. Reporter currently in San Francisco, 83 of covid cases and contacts are reached on a regular basis. Thats right on par with Santa Clara County currently reaching more than 80 of cases and contacts. Napa county is slightly higher with 85 and Solano County 74 and alameda, the lowest reaching around 50 . There have been times when weve received so many case reports that we have not been able to reach out to everybody within that one day. This happened primarily in midsummer when we experienced a massive surge of cases. Reporter thats not predicted to happen for the third wave. At least not in San Francisco. She explains her team is focussing more time analyzing past cases to prevent future outbreaks. By looking backward, we believe that we will be better able to prevent clusters by tracing upstream and trying to understand if somebody had attended a large gathering where many more people need to be notified. Reporter the latest data indicates that strategy is working. In september, more than 1600 covid cases resulted in tracing more than 1700 contacts. Close to 60 of those contacts then got tested. A big jump from four months ago. The only hurdle as hernandez explains is connecting with contacts in a Latin X Community disproportionately affected. The other case investigators have done is to assure them, none of the information gets reported to immigration. San francisco is a sanctuary city to assure them we are only interested in helping them. Reporter the San Francisco department of Public Health has expanded their network of contact tracers to be 40 bilingual spanish speakers and the goal is to reach 50 by the end of this year. Stephanie sierra, abc 7 news. Breaking down the language barrier, thank you. Governor gavin newsom unveiled the state of the art Covid Testing Lab this morning. The lab will be able to process 150,000 pcr tests a day. That represents a 75 increase in the states total testing capacity. It promises to return results in as little as 24 hours. The governor, as you see here, was tested during a tour of the facility. It took two months to build the facility and it will take a few more months to get the operation up to full capacity. Church in san jose is facing more than 300,000 in fines and possible jail time for its Senior Pastor after refusing to compile with Public Health orders. That church has gathered a team of lawyers now and pastors to not only fight the fines but make the case that theyir services are essential during the pandemic. Kris reychris wr kris reyes has the story. Happening now is cruel and unusual punishment. 330,000 in fines leveed against a pastor for simply opening up. Reporter dozens of pastors from all over california stood shoulder to shoulder, no masks and no social distancing to represent the church facing legal action for Holding Indoor gatherings in violation of Public Health orders. Their attendance average about 700 in a space that can hold 1900 people. The county limits indoor gatherings to 100 people. The church has now retained its own lawyers to fight the fines and possible jail time for the pastor. Over the past five months, not one person in his congregation has contracted covid19. They have contributed zero to the total infection rate in this county. Reporter pastor mcclure says there are signs in his church to social distance and people can wear masks if they want but none of it is enforced. Santa clara county counsel James Williams says thats the reason the county felt the need to go to court. We tried to work with them for a long time. The reality is almost every congregation regardless of faith tradition is safely operating in compliance with the Public Health directors. Reporter pastor mcclure says there have been no such conversations between his church and the county. Id love to work with the Health Department but they got upset and yelled at us and left. They never wanted to talk to me or work with me. Id love to. Were trying to help the community. Reporter Santa Clara Countys counsel says ten notices of violation were given to the church and with each notice, the county reached out with suggestions how to safely worship. At the press conference, the group was repeatedly asked why they were not social distancing or wearing masks. Sure, were outdoors. And if you read the warning label on a medical mask, it will not protect you against covid. Were not against wearing masks. Were not against not social distancing but what were for is freedom. Reporter the church will continue to be fined 5,000 for each day it continues to defy the Public Health orders. A court date has been set for monday. In san jose, kris reyes for abc 7 news. With just days until the election, in person voting is underway, how local groups are making sure all stays calm at the polls. Im meteorologist sandhya patel. I have a ghoulishly good forecast that wouldnt haunt you this halloween. How the halladays will look different for shoppers in san fran traffic and air pollution will be even worse after the pandemic. Thats why we support measure rr to keep caltrain running. Which is at risk of shutdown because of the crisis. To keep millions of cars off our roads, to reduce air pollution and fight climate change. And measure rr helps essential workers like me get to work and keep our communities healthy. Relieve traffic. Reduce pollution. Rescue caltrain. [all] yes on measure rr. Myim 70 and i live in mill valley, california. Rescue caltrain. My biggest passion is gardening. I love to be outdoors. I have jaybirds that come when i call. I know how important it is to feed your body good nutrition. I heard about prevagen and i heard about the Research Behind it. Taking prevagen, i have noticed that i can think clearly. My memory is better. I can say that prevagen is one of the most outstanding supplements ive ever taken. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. To the election now, in person voting opened up in Contra Costa County and at 16 other locations scattered across the county. Abc 7 News ReporterLeslie Brinkley went to check out the lines. Traditionally, ive always voted in person. Its what i like to do. It just feels right to me. Starting at 11 00 a. M. Voters lined up outside this Pleasant Hill hotel for a chance to vote in person on brand new electronic poll pads. So we can see if someone already voted or if they have returned their vote by mail ballot and weve counted it. So its going to prevent fraud and also going to allow us to reduce the number of provisional ballots dramatically. Anyone can go to any location because of the realtime connection. Someone living in richmond can vote in alamo and someon in concord can vote in lafayette and have the correct ballot for local races. Here in walnut creek, the line wound around a parking lot. I expected a lot longer line. Im surprised its such a small area for walnut creek, this is the only place to vote in person. Of 17 early vote locations, 12 are outdoors like this one inside a tent from 11 00 a. M. To 7 00 p. M. Another location of key interest, this sports court. This is where 140 workers and volunteers are extracting, that is opening envelopes and taking the ballots out ready to be counted. Besides the good weather and clean air, there was another reason to come out of pandemic isolation for this historic election. You feel comfortable seeing everyone else thats voting, also so you know that everyone is at least coming out to vote. Turnout so far is above 54 . In Contra Costa County, im Leslie Brinkley. Now if you still need to vote and plan to do it in person, what if this happens . You go to your polling place and find yourself being harassed before you even get inside . Chris nguyen has what you should do next. Reporter with the general election days a i wway. Santa clara county is expecting a historic turnout. Were committed to making this election safe so your vote counts and every vote is counted and that is going to happen were. Reporter with many planning to vote in earn many, the District Attorneys Office is working with local and federal Law Enforcement to ease fears about Voter Suppression or intimidation which is reported in other states. Youre not allowed to show up in the possession of firearms or in uniform and to try to intimidate voters. Thats just not allowed in california. Reporter and a reminder election airing is not allowed within 100 feet. Youre not supposed to be shouting slogans or persuading people how to vote within that range. Youre not supposed to be intimidating them in any way or blocking them or hindering them or influencing them in any way. Reporter if anyone gives you a hard time, report it to the polling staff immediately who are trained to help deescalate the situation. They also have a direct line to the county. Be very alert and atentative to anything happening around them during the process of stand income line to vote or actually voting. If you see something, say something. Reporter poll watchers will also be around to help ensure a smooth process. For voters who want to reduce the chances of hitting a line on election day, go vote starting tomorrow. Reporter register of voters shannon and her team are hard at work preparing to open 100 full service vote centers throughout the county on halloween. Maybe they need language assistance or theyd like to use the accessible touch screen Voting Machines or need a replacement ballot. They can do any of these at our full functioning vote centers that offer more services than the polling places did in the past. Reporter more than 500,000 ballots have already been received by the county. In san jose, chris nguyen, a brbabc 7 news. Wed like to know how voting is going for you. Share your experience voting by mail, dropping off your ballot or voting in person through a forum we posted on our website. Go to abc7news. Com election. All right. We have a lot going on. We have the election, halloween this weekend, Daylight Saving time ending. Dion . The weather is perfect for all of it. Fortunately, sandhya has a lot of good halloween weather puns. Ive enjoyed them thoroughly, sandhya. Thank you, dion and dan. Yes, it is going to be ghouli ghoulishly good is one of them. A post sunset view that belongs really on a postcard. Patches of fog on live doppler 7. Here is a look at the air quality. We have moderate pockets of air here in the bay area due to the fact that there are fires still burning in the state of california so it creating hazy skies youre looking at from the south beach camera. Temperatures came down a little bit today as we expected. 58 in the city now, mid 60s oakland and 68 Half Moon Bay is the cool spot. Speaking of cool, look how nice that looks from the emeryville camera. Mid 60s, milder spots, fairfield, low to mid 70s. Low 80s except fairfield. San jose, the sun going down. No tricks, all treats for halloween. Sunny and warmer and looking at the time change so set your clocks back one hour sunday morning we go to standard time. Here is a look at the halloween forecast and its going to be absolutely gorgeous. Sun goes down at 6 11. Its going to be mild low. 60s to mid 70s. A little cooler. It will be spooky cool by 9 00 p. M. Low 50s to low 60s. Its a full blue moon. Two full moons in the entire month of october. So its called a blue moon. Tomorrow morning low 40s to low 50s. We will see some patchy fog right around the bay and coastal fog, as well. Tomorrow afternoon in the south bay, 85 morgan hill, 81 san jose looking for mild, sunny weather you got it. Same thing for palo alto, 68 pacificia and downtown San Francisco 72. 67 in the sunset district. North bay temperatures 78 in san rafael, vallejo, 81 santa rosa. Running above average. Head inland and it is going to be warmer than today. 84 in fairfield, 82 livermore and concord. Now, i do want to show you the beach hazard statement for sunday afternoon through monday evening. Breakers bringing rip currents. West northwest facing beaches so rain chances. Were going to fast forward to election day. Dry with a cold front coming through but a week from today, watching for rain, this model is bringing snow to the sierra as well. Stay tuned models are not in complete agreement for next friday. The accuweather sevenday forecast. Good to go for halloween. Fabulous weather. Remember, you gain that extra hour of sleep sunday as we fall back and then warm weather, dry conditions election day. So we head into next week watching for rain onriday. Dan . Okay. Sandhya, thanks so much. Word tonight about