Sonoma County, one of California’s last two air counties stalled at a highly restricted level of plans to reopen coronavirus, could reach the state benchmark just like next week, allowing it to resume a wide range of public activities by mid-October. The public health official said Wednesday.
The result will be a sustained improvement in the two key metrics that show that the spread of the virus in Sonoma County began to slow in late August and has stabilized since early September. If this trend continues – and does not turn against itself in the next two weeks – the county will be in a position to move beyond the state’s “purple” level, which severely limits the type and scope of indoor activities, said the county’s Dr. Sundari Mess. . Public Health Officer.
Sonoma and Contra Costa counties are the only two area counties in purple that are subject to strict restrictions on indoor activities under the color-coded, four-tier state system used to classify epidemic severity. In the past month, seven other two area counties have moved to the next level, the “red” level, which allows restaurants, fitness centers, movie theaters and dance studios to welcome customers indoors.
The improvement enabled it to expand indoor operations to 50% capacity in many other businesses and public places in those counties, including clothing stores, shoe stores, florists, jewelers and libraries. In Sonoma County, they are currently allowed to serve customers indoors, but only at 25% capacity.
Messi said Wednesday that the county is coming very close to meeting the two benchmarks needed to move forward at the red level, and that could happen on Tuesday, when the state conducts its weekly county assessments.
During a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Mess pointed out several reasons why the county has lagged behind the other two area counties since the outbreak. She said many of the nine counties in the Bay Area have seen an increase in “good months before us” cases and as a result are recovering earlier than Sonoma County.
“So, we’re probably falling behind,” he said. “In other words, we’ll be a few weeks behind them.”
But Mess also noted that Sonoma County is less like other urbanized counties in the Bay Area and more similar in Monterey County, which also remains at the purple level. Both counties are home to tourism, agriculture and other industries, with a large base of agricultural workers living in the county.
“Essential workers in Sonoma County also live and work within our borders,” Mess said.
Strong testing and contact tracing of the county, especially in local Latino communities and in senior care facilities, has found more cases, Mess said.
“It’s good because we find all our cases and make them different,” he said. “It also increases our numbers.”
Announced about four weeks ago, the government’s plan to reopen Gavin News established four color-coded layers of COVID-19 restrictions based on the degree of virus spreading in the county. Purple levels, most restrictive, indicate a “widespread” transmission of the virus; Red means “significant;” Orange represents “moderate” and yellow indicates “minimal.”
The state recalculates each month on Tuesday based on their case rate, the average daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and their positivity rate, including all -19 tests that give a positive result.
Nineteen counties across the state are on red tires and 25, including Sonoma County, are in purple.
To get to the red level, Sonoma County must have seven or fewer new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per day – or about 35 cases per day – and a positivity rate of less than 8%. The county currently has 8. new cases per capita and a positivity rate of 6.6%, but counties must meet both benchmarks to move forward.
With the recent decline in domestic cases, Sonoma County could meet red-level requirements by next Tuesday, Mess said. After that, it should continue to meet those requirements for two consecutive weeks before proceeding.
However, schools are prohibited from resuming classrooms without a waiver from the county’s public health department unless the county stays in Red Tire for an additional two weeks – or in late October, as early as possible.
Contra Costa County, the other two Area Counties still in the Purple Zone, met the red level requirements on Tuesday, starting a two-week count before moving on. The counties of Almeida, San Mateo and Solano left the Purple Zone on Tuesday, joining Napa, Marine, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties.
A spokesman for Contra Costa Health Services, Carl Fischer, said the county has been trending in its COVID-19 matrix since early July and aligned its local health order with the state’s re-planning.
“We do not have additional restrictions on what the state currently allows,” he said.
Sonoma County took that step Wednesday, issuing a new health order to remove county restrictions that go beyond the state’s health care order. As a result, nail salons could resume indoor service in Sonoma County on Thursday morning, aligning the county with state guidelines issued Tuesday by Newsome.
The new local health order does not change any requirements for businesses and individuals aimed at reducing the spread of the virus.
Mess said the new order has resulted in only other changes: raising the size limit for child care groups from 12 to 16 and allowing individual lectures and student gatherings at higher education institutions when the county enters Red Tire.
You Staff writer Martin Espinoza can be reached at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. Pressreno on Twitter.
