⏩ Turnaround: Imperial County, one of the state’s hardest hit, is re-emerging.
Once hardest hit in state, it’s now entered red tier
“They’re anxious for us to open. Our customers, especially our loyal customers, they really miss that socializing. We cannot be hermits.”
Beatriz Gonzalez, owner of Mexican restaurant El Zarape in Imperial
No place was under California’s strictest coronavirus restrictions for longer, without reprieve, than rural Imperial County in the far southeastern corner of the state.
The impoverished county, along the Arizona and Mexico borders, was the first area Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered to halt the reopening of its economy last summer due to a surge in infections. When the state went to a colorcoded system in August, Imperial went straight into the purple tier, the most restrictive.
But the county began to reemerge from its lockdown Wednesday, when it entered the red tier. California allowed Imperial to ease restrictions after its daily rate of new cases dipped to about six people per 100,000. The county can now reopen indoor dining, movie theaters and gyms, all with reduced capacity.
It moved ahead faster than much of Southern California, including Los Angeles and San Diego counties, which could be stuck in the purple tier for at least another week. It also got into the red tier earlier this year than Contra Costa and Sonoma counties in the Bay Area.
Residents and business owners said the change, after nearly a year of living under stringent health measures, brought a mixture of emotions: relief that many restaurants and social venues can reopen and a lingering sense of trauma.
Beatriz Gonzalez, owner of El Zarape, a Mexican restaurant in the city of Imperial, can begin serving customers indoors again, albeit at 25% capacity. She said some of her regulars are desperate to interact with other people after months at home.
“They’re anxious for us to open,” she said. “Our customers, especially our loyal customers, they really miss
that socializing. We cannot be hermits.”
Gonzalez had two relatives die of COVID19, and she said many residents are wary of reopening too quickly. The death toll in the county of 181,000 people is nearing 700, and Gonzalez said collective grief has made people extra vigilant about wearing masks and social distancing.
Over the course of the pandemic, nearly one in seven residents of Imperial County has been infected, the secondhighest rate in the state, behind Lassen County.
Dr. Stephen Munday, Imperial County’s public health officer, said the county’s situation has improved in part because the weather is warming and people are spending less time gathering indoors. Also, roughly a third of residents have been vaccinated or have contracted the virus and recovered, meaning they developed some level of antibodies, he said.
“I do think that some of what we’ve seen is related to the beginnings of moving toward herd immunity,” Munday said. “But not that we actually are at herd immunity yet.”
Luis Flores, an activist with the Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition who lives in Calexico, on the border with Mexico, said he also suspects that the county’s improvement could be the result of worst playing itself out.
“There’s a kind of morbidish sense ... that the good place we’re in is, in some ways, an impact of how bad it was,” he said.
Flores helped lead a petition urging the county to shut down last summer when cases began spiking. He said its improvement is partly the result of the state’s intervention, which tied reopening to case rates and other health indicators.
He said many residents will probably remain guarded about interacting with those outside their households because they’ve lost friends and family to the virus.
“I don’t think people are going to rush to change their behavior because of the tier changing,” Flores said. “My parents have a flower shop, and they’re not going to change anything until they’re vaccinated and they feel safe.”
Longtime residents and community activists say the pandemic’s toll on Imperial County has been exacerbated by racial and economic disparities. Almost a quarter of the county’s residents live in poverty, and its population is 85% Latino. Thousands of migrant workers cross the border every day to pick vegetables or work in meatpacking plants.
The county also has high rates of asthma, diabetes and obesity. It ranks lowest out of California’s 58 counties on a wide range of public health indicators, according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Those factors contributed to one of the worst winter surges in the state. As cases peaked, the state sent in dozens of critical care nurses and respiratory therapists to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Larry Lewis, CEO of one of the county’s largest hospitals, Pioneers Memorial Hospital in Brawley, said much of that emergency staffing is gone now. Countywide, the number of patients hospitalized with the virus is about 14, down from over 200 at the peak of the surge.
“While everybody is keeping a watchful eye, that sense of relief that things could return closer to normal is out there everywhere,” he said.