U.S. San Francisco to reopen City Hall to public

SAN FRANCISCO, May 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Wednesday announced the schedule for reopening City Hall to the public.

Starting June 7, City Hall will reopen for in-person services and general public access, the announcement said.

This includes in-person services like applying for marriage licenses, obtaining birth and death certificates, recording documents, and registering businesses. Counter services will be open for the Treasurer and Tax Collector's Office, the Assessor's Office, County Clerk, Office of Small Business, and other agencies, according to the announcement.

"The County Clerk will begin to accept online appointments for in-person marriage ceremonies today" and marriage ceremonies with no more than six guests will resume after City Hall reopens.

The City Hall was shut down in March 2020 and has not been open for the general public for almost 15 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Bringing the public back into City Hall is a significant step in our reopening process," said Breed. "I'm so excited to see people back in this building, especially on that first day when we see weddings return. San Francisco is opening up again."

"With our early successes in vaccine distribution and managing COVID-19, we're now able to implement expanded in-person services across San Francisco," said Carmen Chu, the first Chinese American woman serving as city administrator of San Francisco.