COUNTY TO FOLLOW NEW STATE RULES ON GROUPS

COVID-19 outbreaks at residences far fewer than at restaurants, businesses

Limit private gatherings to no more than three households, and keep get-togethers outdoors unless someone needs to use the restroom.

Issued Friday evening, new mandatory requirements for gatherings from the California Department of Public Health attempt to put some boundaries around activities that increased this summer as weather warmed and stay-at-home orders, for some, grew intolerably stale.

Asked during a midday news conference Monday to explain the reasons for the new rules, Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s secretary of health and human services, said the state’s intent is not necessarily to endorse gatherings but rather to clearly signal how much is too much.

“More than three households, you really are increasing your risk,” Ghaly said.

He added that specifying gathering limits, which modifies a previous order that prohibited such activities,

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is meant to “tee up” additional modifications to social-gathering requirements that will be coming soon.

Dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, could recommend more-restrictive gathering rules than those the state released, but she said late Monday afternoon that she is not inclined to do so.

“This is just trying to put a prescriptive guidance on the process of allowing friends to come over to someone’s home,” Wooten said.

State rules, she noted, still require face coverings and at least 6 feet of social distance between participants. Think, she said, of three different households setting up their own barbecues in three different corners of a backyard.

“When they sit down to eat, they take their coverings off, and when they finish, they put them back on,” Wooten said. “That’s a responsible and reasonable way to try to do this.”

It is clear, though, as Wooten has noted in weekly COVID-19 updates for months now, many are not following any of this advice.

“What we know is that when people gather at other people’s homes there’s 40 people, there’s no social distancing, there’s no facial covering,” Wooten said.

As many running the region’s COVID-19 response have often remarked, it is impossible for any government agency to police every backyard in a region with more than 3 million residents. So, following these new state guidelines comes down to the honor system.

Understanding whether the public is taking gathering rules to heart will come down to watching the local outbreak statistics published daily by the county’s epidemiology department.

The region has seen a significant uptick in the number of events that meet the community outbreak definition of three or more positive cases from different households having visited the same location within the same 14-day window.

Monday’s report included one additional community outbreak, said to have occurred in a local restaurant with a bar.

According to the most recent overall accounting of community outbreaks provided by the county, individual residences have so far been an insignificant part of the overall outbreak picture.

From March 25 through Oct. 6, just 16 of the 342 community outbreaks tallied so far were at private residences. By comparison, businesses have had 104 and restaurants, those with or without a bar, have collectively contributed 106.

San Diego County announced 195 additional coronavirus cases and zero additional deaths on Monday.

Today looks to be an active day on the COVID-19 calendar with Wooten scheduled to deliver a status update, including more information on how the region holds up under new state health-equity standards.

At noon, Ghaly is scheduled to release the state’s latest reopening assessment for counties based on the four-tiered coronavirus risk rankings.

Moving up or down, which alters operating guidelines for businesses and other organizations, is governed by the number of local cases per 100,000 residents and also the percentage of cases coming back positive.

Recently, San Diego County has struggled the most with delivering a case rate that allows it to move forward and avoid falling back to the lowest tier of the system.

Based on the numbers from the county Monday morning, San Diego County looks to remain in its current red tier, one better than the lowest level, color-coded purple.