Social interaction outside one’s household is banned and will remain banned for a long time. You could meet people illicitly but I’d expect a selection bias against conscientiousness in the pool of people up for meeting strangers right now. That doesn’t bode well for stable relationships.
What area are you in where you're not allowed to meet your friends? It's not banned where I am. You're just supposed to wear a mask and maintain distance.
San Francisco. Some outdoors activities are permitted if you wear a mask and maintain distance from other groups, but within your group it's only supposed to be members of your own household.
Obviously no one is going to check whether a couple is actually cohabitating or whether a group of friends are actually roommates. Compliance is low. But that's why this mess is dragging on forever.
There are health officials (I don't know what to call them) going around Mission Dolores Park handing out masks to groups sitting together that don't cohabitate. Banned implies they would have park rangers instead going around issuing tickets like they do for having glass, etc.
While I agree that lackadaisical response is making this drag on, I don't think San Francisco contributes much to that.
The public health order says "recreating only with people in the same household" [0]. I have seen similar signage for outdoor dining
Prioritizing harm reduction interventions (e.g. handing out masks) over punitive enforcement (e.g. tickets) is more of a general San Francisco policy. Still illegal.