Officials take aim at big gatherings
Current COVID-19 order prohibits all functions with anyone outside household
SALINAS >> With local COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths surging, and a new stay-at-home order in place during the height of the holidays, the offices of the Monterey County sheriff and district attorney are targeting gatherings of people outside their immediate households.
Officials from both offices say the new stay-at-home order provides a more specific prohibition on such gatherings, especially large parties, and allows them to better pursue enforcement, although enforcement efforts are still based on responding to complaints.
The order, which took effect in Monterey County at 10 p.m. on Dec. 13, requires all people to remain at home as much as possible except for conducting essential business such as shopping, seeking medical care and exercising, and to avoid mixing with people from other households, among other restrictions on business and activities.
While the state required an order to take effect as soon as a specific region dipped to 15% hospital ICU bed capacity, Monterey County Health Officer Dr. Edward Moreno decided to follow the lead of five Bay Area counties and implement an order before the region reached that limit and argued that the local hospital situation made the early move the wisest course of action. The Bay Area region, which includes Monterey County, dipped below the 15% ICU bed availability limit days later and is now subject to the order.
According to the state, the order is designed to provide “a new tool for local officials and law enforcement personnel to use to protect public health and safety,” and failure to comply with the order may be punishable by a fine or a misdemeanor, as well as revocation of a business license, or court-imposed penalties.
Chief Deputy John Thornburg said the Sheriff’s Office is taking a “different approach” to enforcement of parties and other group affairs under the new order, though deputies haven’t yet cited anyone and he clarified that they won’t be “kicking in the door” on Christmas.
“We are concentrating on the blatant violators,” Thornburg said. “The people who invite five or six families who obviously don’t all live at the same address.”
Before the current order, Thornburg said it was “hugely problematic” to target parties for enforcement because even if deputies drove by and saw many cars in a driveway and assumed a huge party was under way it was still difficult to prove attendees weren’t part of the same family and knew they were violating an order. He noted that even videos of large parties often showed people wearing masks and observing social distancing rules, and while weddings were prohibited under previous orders, “try telling a bride she’s not getting married on her wedding day.”
Thornburg said the Sheriff’s Office began working about two months ago with the county Resource Management Agency and code enforcement to stop large parties based on the use of tents, which require a county permit, and that effort will continue.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Berkley Brannon said the latest order is “a lot easier to enforce” because it clarifies that no gatherings are allowed at all involving anyone outside the household, related or not. Previous orders were less clear, and some even allowed
multi-household gatherings as long as everyone was part of a “social circle” of about a dozen people.
“I don’t believe we’ll be breaking up Christmas parties but we won’t ignore large parties,” Brannon said, noting that local officials believe people are using large gatherings as a substitute for closed-down bars and restaurants.
Brannon said local law enforcement officials have discussed the order and its enforcement, and have learned from previous orders. He said law enforcement will still start out by “using persuasion instead of arrests,” but that he expects to see an increase in cases involving individuals.
“We believe the epidemic is very serious and we’re at a very bad stage, a dire situation with hospital capacity, and it’s only going to get worse,” he said. “We all need to bear down and get through this.”
Moreno said during a county briefing on Wednesday that gatherings outside households is “how the virus is spreading” and that is still continuing despite the latest order.
“The stay-at-home order is effective but it’s only going to be as effective as people complying with it,” Moreno said.
Earlier this month, three top local hospital officials called for more enforcement of COVID-19 safety measures in a report to the Board of Supervisors on the local surge in the virus and its effect on hospital capacity. Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula Dr. Martha Blum and Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital Dr. Allen Radner, both infectious disease experts, and Natividad CEO Dr. Gary Gray all agreed that additional enforcement was needed to curb the spike in the virus since even laudable
public outreach campaigns had apparently failed to adequately convince people to comply.
At the time, they pointed out that the dreaded Thanksgiving holiday surge in cases and hospitalizations hadn’t yet been fully realized, and even a “draconian lockdown” would take weeks to have an effect.
While the hospital officials didn’t specify what enforcement efforts they believed were indicated, Blum told The Herald that the county’s decision to implement the latest order “in advance of the mandate accomplished much in terms of communicating to the public the serious nature of the current surge.” Even so, Blum argued that “orders alone without any plan to monitor and compel compliance may have little impact on the risky behaviors of some people.”
And she noted that “many businesses” have told hospital workers they have “struggled with confrontations with patrons refusing to wear masks,” and argued that devoting more resources to help with enforcement of the mask mandate “would make it more safe for all of us to visit indoor businesses and take some of the stress of enforcement off the business owners.”
Meanwhile, the Carmel restaurant that previously defied a COVID-19 shutdown order — the Tuck Box — has already been issued a notice of violation this week for allowing outdoor dining, which is not allowed under the current stay-at-home order.
County health environmental health bureau assistant director Ric Encarnacion confirmed during Wednesday’s county briefing that the notice of violation had been issued to the
restaurant on Tuesday, and said the bureau has “zero tolerance” for violations of the order.
“This is a public health and safety issue,” Encarnacion said noting that the majority of local restaurants and other businesses subject to the more than 1,900 inspections the environmental health bureau has conducted since September are “trying really hard to comply.” However, he added those that fail to comply are “contributing to the mess we’re in.”
Encarnacion also confirmed on Wednesday that Aloha Coffee on Del Monte Avenue in Monterey had its permit revoked this week for failing to require its customers wear masks and then continuing to operate after its permit was suspended, though the violations occurred before the latest order.
As of Tuesday morning, the county has had 24,532 confirmed COVID-19 cases — an increase of more than 6,000 since a week ago although more than half of that can be attributed to a 3,300-case spike on Friday blamed on a reporting backlog stretching back weeks, an influx of state prison inmate cases and a change in the way local cases are reported.
A month ago, just before Thanksgiving, the county reported 13,913 total COVID-19 cases.
The state is reporting the county’s COVID-19 test positivity rate is at 13.9% while it’s health equity positivity rate for those living in the poorest and hardest hit census tracts is at 19%.
In all, 165 patients are currently in local hospitals with the virus and a total of 180 people have died from COVID-19.