County pushes ahead with reopening plan

Health officials in Contra Costa County plan to forge ahead with reopening more of the region’s economy next week even as new case totals tick upward.

At a county supervisors’ meeting Tuesday afternoon, Deputy Health Officer Dr. Sara Levin said the county is reopening hotels for tourism on July 1 as planned, along with bars, gyms, indoor dining and more.

The county is still planning to open up more broadly two weeks later, adding facial skin care facilities, movie theaters and card rooms to the list.

According to the county’s website, the July 1 reopening includes nail, waxing and massage salons; indoor dining; bars with or without food service; gyms and personal training; arcades and bowling alleys; indoor museums; and hotels.

Contra Costa County has reported 18 new deaths in the last week, an eye-opening number as officials press ahead with reopening, but health services director Anna Roth said 16 of those patients were in long-term care facilities, which are largely cut off from the outside.

The county has seen its three highest new-case figures over the last four days, including a singleday high of 92 new cases on Saturday and 85 more Tuesday.

When questioned about the recent increase in confirmed cases, Levin said that the county’s positive case rate is steady, at around 3%.

“The reflection of a lot more cases is a lot more testing,” she said. “Those cases were out in community … we were not identifying them.”

The county’s hospitals were using 113 of 260 intensive care beds as of Sunday, a key indicator officials are using to determine preparedness in the event of a reopening-related surge.

Levin said people can remain relatively safe amid reopening by social distancing and washing their hands but she admitted the safest plan for the county would have been to “continue to shelter in place until all of this is eliminated.”