Health officer releases local health advisory

Dr. Luu calls for schools to move online and no dining outdoors or indoors

It’s a striking advisory for a striking set of circumstances.

Bi-county Health Officer Dr. Phuong Luu issued an advisory Friday, to take effect Monday, that, among other things, calls for Yuba-sutter schools to shut down in-person teaching and tells restaurants to cut out both indoors and outdoors dining.

The advisory comes in response to Yuba-sutter having some of the worst statistics in the state, including 0 percent remaining ICU capacity. Yuba

Sutter has the highest rate of COVID-19 test positivity in the state.

Luu made clear in a virtual online interview, that her advisory is separate from the state’s regional stay-at-home orders announced Thursday by Gov. Gaven Newsom.

Sutter County currently has the highest test positivity rate (number of cases testing positive divided by the total number of tests taken) in the state at 20.1 percent; Yuba County has a test positivity of 16.2 percent. The state’s average

is 6.4 percent, according to the advisory.

The advisory will be in effect for three weeks and lays out four steps that Yuba-sutter residents should take.

– Activities done outside the home should be limited to once per week for essential activities (groceries or medicine). People should not allow individuals from other households into their home.

– Schools should revert to distance learning for all grades. While the advisory might be a step back in the eyes of some families, Luu said following the advisory would actually be less chaotic because at present, with some in-class teaching, notice could come at any given time that in-class teaching is suspended because a student or teacher was exposed.

– All in-person dining at restaurants, either outdoors or indoors, should be discontinued, according to the advisory. Luu said no other activity leads to more people not wearing masks while being in close contact with others.

“It’s on the list because of science,” Luu said. “... The risk is pervasive right now.”

– All in-person governmental functions should be suspended as determined by the respective governing board, according to the advisory.

The measures will amount to a hard pill to swallow for many who are faced with the set back. But the numbers are real, she emphasized and citizens should be cognizant of the reasons for the high infection rates. Luu said people in Yuba and Sutter are fatigued by the COVID-19 restrictions

and have been ignoring the guidelines by gathering.

She made clear that a gathering does not just mean going to a concert, wedding or party – it’s any contact between people of different households.

“A gathering could be lunch with your best friend,” Luu said.

Worse yet, the recent spike in cases does not yet include the inevitable increase from the Thanksgiving holiday, according to Luu. The impact of those gatherings will be seen starting next week.

“That scares me,” Luu said.

The decision to announce the advisory was not based solely on the positivity rate but that metric helped Luu understand how wide-spread the virus is in Yuba-sutter.

“It’s seeped into every corner, every facet of YubaSutter,” Luu said. “The house is on fire.”

The state’s regional stay-at-home order has Yuba and Sutter as part of the Greater Sacramento region. Once the entire region’s intensive care unit capacity is below 15 percent, that order would go into effect. Luu said at Adventist Health/rideout ICU capacity is at zero.

It’s not just availability of beds, but of staff members. Resources are spread thin, which affects the treatment of both COVID and nonCOVID patients.

Luu said Adventist

Health has not had to move patients to other hospitals yet, but that might eventually be the case. She noted that process is complicated.

The bi-county tracing team continues to work daily on tracking the spread of the virus, but Luu said more than 50 percent of people who transmit the virus are asymptomatic when they do so. Someone

could infect many people unknowingly and in turn those people could pass it to others.

“We want to catch you and counsel you while you’re still highly infectious,” Luu said of the tracing team.

Local response

Yuba City Mayor Marc Boomgaarden said he and Vice Mayor David Shaw participated in a conference call with

Luu on Wednesday where she explained the latest statistics and communicated her concern regarding the rapid rise in cases. The discussion with Luu led to an emergency council meeting, though no action was taken by the council during the meeting.

“During the meeting we were briefed by our city department heads on their current plans relative to COVID and their future plans, actions and service capability should certain threats develop,” Boomgaarden said in an email.

He said the council and

city staff have continued to provide essential services throughout the pandemic and city staff has been loaned to help emergency operation.

“It is good emergency management practice to leave messaging to the ‘experts,’” Boomgaarden said. “I am not aware of anything she or Bi-county Public Health has asked of us that we haven’t provided or supported.”

He made clear that he believes COVID-19 is real and affecting the community, but doesn’t think shutting down restaurants is the answer.

“As a participant in Dr. Luu’s weekly briefings I haven’t heard that dining establishments (indoor or outdoor) are hotbeds

for COVID spread,” Boomgaarden said. “So, at this point I believe shutting down both inside and outside dining, as the Governor has signaled will go into effect when the region’s ICU capacity falls below 15 percent, is not reasonable at this time ... if a restaurant or business wants to stay open, and a customer wants to visit that business, I believe they should be able to do that. “

Yuba County Supervisor Gary Bradford said the board’s role is finding a balance between overwhelming the healthcare system and killing the local economy.

“Given the current situation at Adventist Health/rideout and

across Yuba-sutter, we should join Dr. Luu and encourage the community to step up and do their part to get the spread under control and relieve the pressure on our local hospital,” Bradford said in an email.

Bradford said he hopes the community’s actions will allow students to return to school after the winter break and that residents should support local restaurants in a way that helps the hospital and local business.

“I’m hopeful that my fellow community members will consider this guidance over the next few weeks in order to support our health care system, health care workers, teachers, schools, and small businesses over the next few months,” Bradford said.

He said the board will continue to hold supervisor meetings via video conference and that more county staff will work remotely and some services will be unavailable in person during the next three weeks.