3 counties pushing for store reopening
Sonoma County is joining two nearby counties in asking Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office to grant them an advancement to Phase 2 of the state’s reopening plan for containing the coronavirus, saying the mandated benchmarks from the governor set the bar unreasonably high.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the variance request on Monday. Solano and Napa County have also filed documents asking for a more prompt reopening. Phase 2 of the state’s plan for reopening would include a quicker resumption for dinein restaurants, stores, shopping malls and other businesses, while advising people to heed shelterinplace mandates and social-distancing guidelines.
“It’s a reasonable request with the understanding that we protect the lives of the people who live here first and foremost, but we also acknowledge that health is beyond just phys
ical,” Sonoma County District 3 Supervisor Shirlee Zane told The Chronicle.
Eighteen California counties, the majority in rural areas, have received the green light from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office to begin reopening their local economies and advance to Phase 2 of the state’s plan, because they met all the criteria, which include no more than one case per 10,000 residents over the last 14 days, the capacity to do 1.5 tests daily per 1,000 residents, 15 contact tracers per 100,000 residents, a controlled hospital capacity and zero COVID19 related deaths for 14 days.
Thirty other counties have also filed for variances with the state.
Supervisor Zane believes the state’s criteria are based less on science than politics, and has set the bar unreasonably high for large and urban counties. “This is about the spirit of the law, rather than the letter,” Zane said. “We have definitely met that criteria in a broader sense.”
Sonoma County has one of the lowest case rates in the Bay Area — less than 2 cases per 10,000 residents — but did have a COVID19 death within the last 14 days, a 90yearold woman who had preexisting conditions. They also have a higher number of positive testing results and 50 contact tracers for the region, which is lower than the benchmarks set by the state. But the criteria have been a moving target, District 2 Supervisor David Rabbitt said, which is why the county is hoping to work with the state to reevaluate the regulations in the broader context of the progress the county has already made. He’s concerned about the paradigm of inessential and nonessential businesses, particularly in light of what stands to be lost if the shutdown continues in Sonoma County.
He expects the tourism industry, which in 2019 saw 10.8 million visitors, to be the sector hit hardest.
Sonoma County residents say the economic ramifications of the pandemic feel weighted in the context of what the area has already gone through from wildfires in recent years.
“There is a sense that we’ve survived something that the Bay Area has not, have gone through something that the Bay Area has not, so we get disaster in a different way,” said the Rev. Lindsey BellKerr, a Methodist pastor who lives in Santa Rosa. “In some ways, it’s like — we have suffered, so we have a right to reopen.”
That’s the attitude that BellKerr, 35, has been noticing in the cultural discourse around reopening. She’s worried about the potential for it, especially because she works mostly with vulnerable communities, including homeless people and seniors. “We haven’t seen a spike here in Sonoma County so there’s this push to reopen,” she said. “But not having reopened is why we haven’t seen a risk . ... We have to imagine what it would look like if we did reopen.”
But many residents maintain that taking the risk is not only paramount for supporting the economy of Sonoma County but also in controlling other negative health outcomes sprouting from the virus.
Bill Clark, a data scientist who lives in Santa Rosa, has had numerous conversations with his wife, a nurse, about the inevitability of their infections — they’ve even wondered whether they’d be better off contracting the virus now, while the hospitals are far below capacity, than later, when a surge might handcuff the system.
Considering the improbability of a vaccine in the next year and the speed with which the virus moves, Clark, 46, believes it’s a matter of when people will get it, not if. He thinks a fluid and reopened system that works in tandem with hospital capacity is the most rational decision. Having the virus spread slowly, he says, doesn’t serve any good purpose, and only delays the inevitable, while fueling worse outcomes for those sheltering in place who have lost their jobs or are stuck at home.
“Everyone keeps trying to make it about money versus lives,” Clark said. “I think of it in terms of lives versus lives; there are real consequences in terms of people’s health.”
In Napa County, at a special meeting Thursday, the Board of Supervisors approved and authorized an attestation report from health officer Dr. Karen Relucio that the county is ready to allow more businesses to reopen. County officials are seeking approval from the California Department of Public Health to move into the next phase.
If approved, the county would be able to open dinein restaurants, retail businesses for instore service, and open schools and child care facilities. The county has 83 total cases and a positive test rate of 2.8%. Of its three deaths, one was reported in the last 14 days, on May 10, but Relucio noted “that indicator cannot be viewed in isolation.”
Napa County, like Sonoma County, has also requested permission to open wineries and tasting rooms — which would be contingent on state approval.
“We do need to give businesses an opportunity to bring their employees back,” said Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza. “It’s about a recognition that our local conditions allow us to move forward … I am very confident in what we have put forward today.”
Solano County District 1 Supervisor Erin Hannigan said the board has asked their public health officer, Dr. Bela Matyas — who signed off on their attestation — to pose a question to the governor’s office about religious establishments, whether they can be added during Phase 2 instead of Phase 3.
Officials in Solano County reported two more deaths related to the coronavirus Thursday, bringing the county’s total to 14, seven in the last four days. Supervisor Hannigan said a large proportion of the county’s cases have been confined to an outbreak at a convalescent home in Vallejo, which the board hopes makes the case to the state that the county has little community spread.