Marin County gets OK to reopen more businesses
responsibility,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s public health officer. “We definitely don’t want for our community to see this movement from purple to red as: ‘The coast is clear.’ We’re much closer to purple than we are to orange. The next couple of weeks are going to be important. We’re at a critical juncture.”
Joining Inyo and Tehama, Marin was one of three counties in the state boosted from the worst to the secondworst tier among the state’s framework. As it stands, 30 of the state’s counties are in purple (widespread; 17 are in red; nine are in orange (moderate); and two are in yellow (minimal).
The state updates the tiers every Tuesday based on coronavirus cases, positive test rates and the amount of testing. If a county stays in a tier for at least three weeks, it is eligible to advance. If its metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it could be assigned a more restrictive tier.
Marin actually thought it would make this jump last week, but a lastminute decision by the state kept the county in the purple tier. Many of the tests performed by the county were initially undercounted by the state, skewing last week’s results, according to Dr. Willis.
He said that daily updates with regards to tier status will be given in the future as the state and counties try to align with the new blueprint. But some aren’t waiting around for the health departments to fix the process.
Sonoma Fit owner
Adam Kovacs cannot open his two Sonoma County gyms, but he opened his Novato gym at 10% capacity on Sept. 8 as he was advised to do by county officials. When the state reversed course eight hours before he was scheduled to open at 6 a.m., Kovacs went forward and has stayed open for a week.
“We are some real rulefollowers, but enough is enough,” Kovacs said. “We’ve got San Francisco officials (going) into gyms and Nancy Pelosi getting a haircut inside. Many business owners are now like: ‘Who cares, anymore? This makes no f—ing sense.’ ”
Kovacs’ gym in Novato was open for one day before the midMarch shelterinplace order. The 400plus maxoccupancy fitness center is following 10% capacity state protocol and has been creative with adding outdoor space to make room for 150 checkins a day.
“I’m happy that something is finally happening, but it’s been six months,” Kovacs said. “I’m upset, and I continue to worry. I don’t want to live this way, but I’m living in fear.”
Willis chose the word “caution” over “fear,” but he gets it.
Marin County has been one of the Bay Area’s leaders with its sitespecific protection plans, which have to be approved by the Public Health Department and posted at each business. Willis has led initiatives with 19 different business sectors to define specific safety practices.
Willis said he’ll use precise contact tracing with gyms, movie theaters, restaurants and places of worship to create a “localevidencebased” approach to continuing or cutting those industries considered to have a higher risk of transmission.
“I think one of the challenges for this is: You’re able to reopen because you’re containing the virus, and that progress allows us to reopen more, but that reopening itself can threaten further progress,” he said. “There’s risk associated with different openings for indoor activities. It’s a delicate process. We want to be able to reopen, and we know that we can take the steps — only because we’ve made progress.
“But, if we’re not careful, we could easily slip backward.”