Changes issued by state, including the opening of nail salons, will immediately be effective at county level
Sonoma County’s local public health order is now aligned with the state health order, the county announced on Wednesday. Going forward, local businesses and activities will be allowed to reopen as soon as possible under the state’s framework. As such, businesses won’t need to wait for future local amendments should the county move to a new tier within the state’s color-coded coronavirus tracking model.
As part of its alignment with the state health order, childcare groups can move from being limited to 12 individuals in a cohort to 16, Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said. Additionally, nail salons are now allowed to open indoors in all counties in all tiers.
“As of this week we remain in the purple tier, or tier one, of California’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. The state uses two metrics in assigning our current status in their four-tiered, color-tiered system. We’re currently at 9.8 cases per 100,000 per day, and our test positivity is now at 4.4%,” Mase said in an update on Sept. 23.
In order to move from the purple tier down to the red tier, the county needs to have below 7 cases per 100,000 per day and a test positivity rate below 8% for two consecutive weeks.
Despite still not being able to move down to the red tier from the purple one, Mase said that the county’s new case rate has decreased significantly from where it was a couple of ago, hovering at around 15 cases per day per 100,000.
“Although our case positivity rate is actually in the orange tier, we’re still in the purple tier because of the county’s cases per day rate,” Mase said.
What sets Sonoma County apart from its Bay Area brethren who are already in the red tier is that it’s a tourist and agriculture county, Mase said, which has likely resulted in higher case rates.
Additionally, Mase noted that the county likely hasn’t seen the impact of the evacuations caused by the Walbridge Fire or any gatherings that may have occurred over Labor Day on county case rates yet.
Case clusters
When giving an update on specific areas impacted by the virus, Mase noted that overall there have been 953 residents and staff virus cases associated with skilled nursing and residential care homes. Of the 562 cases, 93 of them have been fatalities, resulting in a case fatality ratio of 16.5%. In the past two to four weeks, the number of cases appearing in nursing and residential care homes has significantly decreased, she said.
“We are making progress in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Sonoma County, and this amendment streamlines the process to allow businesses to safely reopen,” Mase said in a statement. “However, it’s important to remember that this should not be seen as a return to normal. The virus is still not contained. We remain particularly concerned with those most at risk for serious health consequences and how the activities of those at lower risk can impact the most vulnerable.”
When looking at cases among vineyard workers and at wineries and ranches, the county has determined 88 vineyards, wineries or ranches were noted as places of work where folks have tested positive for COVID-19 (97 people who tested positive did not note their place of work). Within that, there have been 12 clusters where five or more cases have occurred and 107 people noted their workplace as either a confirmed or likely place of exposure.
Looking at the agriculture sector, positive cases have occurred due to close contact and community transmission, but have also been decreasing.
Mase gave an update on outbreaks in schools and child care facilities. An increase from the 13 reported last week, the county has now identified 15 schools or child care facilities with known virus cases, with three facilities having five cases or greater, one of which has an ongoing cluster of 30 or more cases.
While schools are all currently operating with distance learning, Mase noted that the outbreaks related to school and child care facilities represent the potential exposures that may occur if schools were to reopen.
“I know there continues to be a great deal of concern and interest about the process of reopening schools, but it’s important to remember that opening schools is not determined by a single person, but by the community as a whole,” Mase said. “The ability to slow the spread of the virus enough to move us out of the highly restrictive purple tier and into the red tier that will enable us to open our schools for in-person learning as long as they’re prepared and have their plans in place for all of the mitigation measures and for any additional cases or the need for contact tracing.”
Following an announcement from the county health department last week, Mase is in the middle of reviewing waiver requests from local K-6 schools requesting to have in-person instruction. Mase noted that she will likely have an update about the waivers by the end of this week.
