County stops reopening after first case
Coronavirus surfaces in rural California area
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The first California county to backpedal on its reopening plan wasn’t one of the urban areas that agitated to reopen or a coastal area where beaches draw crowds, but a remote outpost that didn’t have a single known coronavirus case until last week.
All it took was a single infection that spread to four other people before Lassen County, home to 30,000 people living in pine-covered mountains and the high desert of Northern California, temporarily rescinded orders that had reopened restaurants, shopping and other services.
The county on the Nevada border had not reported a coronavirus case until May 22, when a resident who had traveled outside the county and became ill tested positive, said Barbara Longo, the county health and social services director.
A small team of 11 nurses and other health department employees went to work over the holiday weekend to try to track down everyone who had been in contact with the infected person and get them tested, leading to all the additional cases, including the spouse of the initial patient.
“We got on it right away,” Longo said. “I’m telling you, we got the call Friday night and got all that testing done Saturday, Sunday and Monday.”
Several more people who had come into contact with the initial person infected were also under orders to stay home for two weeks, the incubation period for COVID-19, even if they tested negative.
On Tuesday evening, the county notified businesses that had been allowed to reopen two weeks earlier that they would have to return to offering takeout food or curbside pickup.
“We were fully aware of the risk that the virus could come to our community from people visiting people living in infected areas outside of our county or people visiting our county,” Dr. Kenneth Korver, the county’s public health officer, wrote in a public health order.
For the owners of the Courthouse Cafe, a breakfast and lunch place on Main Street in Susanville, it meant a return to offering its street tacos, carne asada fries and and biscuits and gravy to go.
“We’re just rolling with the punches,” said Alex Lopez, whose family owns the restaurant. “We knew that’s what was going to happen when other counties reopened before Memorial Day weekend. We knew we were going to get cases.”