Govin Gavin Newsom said Monday that four new counties would be required to close hair salons, gyms and other businesses, marking the first time the state has updated its list of areas experiencing high COVID-19 transmission in more than two weeks since a massive data club outlined the number of positive cases.
The state uses the list to monitor flow in cases of coronavirus, hospitalizations and community outreach and to make decisions about allowing counties to open certain sectors, including schools and services to people in places of worship.
Officials halted the list at 38 counties on July 31 as the state worked to correct problems with its electronic search reporting system and surveillance system, known as CalREDIE. The data problems caused a backlog of 295,000 coronavirus test results and preceded the sudden departure of the state’s official, Dr. Sonia Angell, who oversees the reporting system.
Santa Cruz County is now off the list, while Amador, Mendocino, Inyo and Calaveras were added and should close businesses by Thursday. Sierra County was added two days ago and could also be subject to closures if it failed to meet state thresholds for a third day. The governor said he expected San Diego to be removed from the list this week.
“This is a dynamic list,” Newsom said Monday. ‘People are coming, people are coming off. The figures shift every week. I expect the figures to shift again this week. ”
The state’s watch list continues to cause. Removing a province from the list does not allow sectors there to operate immediately without restrictions, and state officials have not yet presented further guidance to counties to move forward. If a province remains 14 days off the list, local officials would be allowed to open schools for nursery school through 12th grade. But indoor operations at closed businesses and other affected areas would not be allowed to reopen until the state health officer issued a new mandate.
The state informed the Santa Cruz County health officer Sunday night that it would be removed from the list Monday, an action that has little immediate effect.
“It does not change anything – you need to be 14 days off the watch list,” said Jason Hoppin of the communications officer.
Officials in San Diego County, who are expected to be removed from the watch list Tuesday, noted that director of California Health and Humans Services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, on Monday, said the state is still updating its guidance and plans to release further information to the counties this week.
“The state is considering what they will do, but there are currently no guidelines,” said San Diego County Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten during a newsletter. “We have to be patient and wait for guidance to come out of the state.”
Inyo County was placed on the list for the first time Monday after cases there spiked after an outbreak at a health center, said Assistant County Administrative Officer Leslie Chapman. Companies have until midnight Wednesday to make adjustments to their operations.
“We’re just shutting down and trying to help people by speeding up permits so people can move their businesses out,” Chapman said.
Meanwhile, business numbers lost during the CalREDIE glitch were still circulating in the province. Newsom said 14,861 overdue COVID-19 cases have been recovered, but that counties are still waiting to receive their individual totals.
In Los Angeles County, where health officials announced 19 new coronavirus deaths on Monday and 1,185 new cases on Monday, officials said they believe the data would reflect the general trend in declining cases and hospitalizations.
“We still think we are missing out on cases,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a news release Monday, adding that local officials are still working with the state to get an accurate count. “That will obviously affect the rolling averages and our test positivity rate.”
The CalREDIE distribution, which blamed state officials for a mix of technical and human errors, raised concerns about the Newsom administration’s response to the pandemic, as California reported more than 625,000 cases of the virus. . The problem also exacerbated the state’s communication problems with county officials, who were left in the dark about when they might be removed from the list.
“We do not feel we need to be placed on the watch list, that these figures do not necessitate this kind of extreme action by the state in this case and especially because these numbers are in dispute and are currently in dispute,” he said. San Mateo County Manager Mike Callagy said in a newsletter last week, “We do not know a clear path from this list.”
The decision to release the monitoring list has frustrated counties across the state that have seen drops in cases and in the rates of positive test results. They believed they were eligible to reopen businesses but were forced to wait for the state to repair the system.
Officials in Counties of Orange and San Diego thought they had reached the threshold to be removed from the watch list last week, but said they did not know if or when that could happen.
In Orange County, Supervisor Michelle Steel said Thursday that while the local outlook was promising, the data problems and their consequences were worrying.
“For months [the Board of Supervisors] has raised questions and concerns about the data, ”Steel said of Orange County’s request for information on how the data was recorded. “Our cities rely on this data to best determine how you should respond to the change in case and COVID-19 related deaths.”
The California Department of Public Health said counties were removed from the monitoring list and allowed businesses to reopen once they met the state thresholds once for three consecutive days. Although the state’s COVID-19 website has no description of how counties are removed from the list, an agency spokeswoman said the state communicates changes in phone calls or emails to local health departments every day.
