COVID-19 hospitalizations reached new peaks in the Bay Area this week, with the nine counties reporting 491 patients on Thursday, a grim number that shows the virus is re-emerging after months of restrictions and sacrifice.
One of the hot spots is Marin County, where officials are dealing with more than 1,400 cases between prisoners in San Quentin and a rapid spread in the Latino community, as essential workers in construction, food service, stores Grocery or custodial jobs contract the virus and bring the virus. It is the home of their families.
On Friday, the state added Marin to a growing 21-county watch list where cases or hospitalizations are on the rise. That list also includes Solano and Santa Clara counties. Statewide, the number of cases exceeded a quarter of a million on Friday, with 250,431 people testing positive and 6,312 deaths. The Bay Area confirmed 27,804 cases on Friday afternoon, with a death toll of 595.
Matt Willis, the Marin County Public Health Officer, helped establish an Incident Command Center in San Quentin on Friday afternoon. Standing on the prison grounds outside the warden’s office, he took stock of the latest developments. Two crises had to be controlled: a prison outbreak that could easily exploit 2,000 cases and emerging groups in low-income households that form “the backbone of the essential workforce,” he said. Many of these workers live in crowded homes because they cannot afford more space.
“When we look at the daily list, we see groups of people who share the same last name,” Willis said.
Governor Gavin Newsom established the watch list this week to reduce a period of feverish reopens. He ordered counties with spiked cases to finish indoor dinners in restaurants and close movie theaters and warehouses and reinstate many of the stay-at-home orders they had raised.
“Are we opening too fast? In terms of infections, no doubt, ”said Robert Siegel, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University. “We never brought the total pandemic down to a reasonable level and cut the transmission rate, which means we will deal with this for the foreseeable future.”
Political leaders who make decisions about reopening aren’t just thinking about infections and death, he said. They are also balancing economic, political, cultural and personal needs, all of which complicate the situation.
In Marín, officials are testing various interventions, such as income support and emergency housing to isolate essential workers who test positive. The county has received help from philanthropic groups like the Marin Community Foundation, Willis said.
The basic public health message is the same: wash your hands, wear a mask, stand six feet away.
Rachel Swan is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @rachelswan
