The Bay Area’s shelter-in-place has been extended through May 3, officials said Tuesday, with new clarifications and restrictions surrounding essential businesses, parks and construction.
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties have signed onto the new directive, which replaces the previous order that kicked off March 17. The city of Berkeley, which operates its own public health department, also backed the order.
Newly tightened restrictions include mandatory social distancing when operating essential businesses and the closure of non-essential aspects of essential businesses, Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams said during a press conference Tuesday morning. Playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas and other shared recreational spaces like rock climbing walls also must close down.
Most residential and commercial construction is now prohibited, with narrow exceptions for projects associated with health care operations and multifamily or mixed-use projects containing at least 10% income-restricted units.
Essential businesses, meanwhile, will be required to post a sanitation and social distancing plan — tailored to their specific operations — in a public space, officials said, and make the same document available to employees and law enforcement. The county is providing companies with a template to use while crafting a social distancing protocol that meets the needs in each individual facility.
“I want to be very clear about the overall goal we’re trying to achieve,” said Santa Clara County Health Officer Sara Cody. “The goal is to decrease to the greatest extent possible the average number of contacts each of us has every day.”
Although early indications show that social distancing measures have helped to stem the virus’s spread, every unnecessary point of contact between residents could increase COVID-19’s reach, she said.
In the weeks since the first order was put in place, countywide cases have skyrocketed from 138 to 890, while deaths have risen from three to 30.
Because COVID-19’s incubation period is believed to be about two weeks, public health experts have cautioned it could take around a month to noticeably “flatten the curve” of case increases. Any perceived slowdown in cases so far has to be treated “very, very, very cautiously,” Cody said.
“I believe it is starting to bend the curve but it’s not enough and it hasn’t been in place long enough so we need to keep at it,” she said. “If we stay the course, we will save lives.”
At this point, the county health care system has not yet been overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, said County Executive Jeff Smith, noting that 152 confirmed patients and another 90 “suspected” patients have been hospitalized across 11 hospitals.
The tightened restrictions aim to stave off more patients that would push the hospital system toward its 1,475-bed capacity, he said. Santa Clara County now has about 611 ventilators at its disposal, although only about 200 are currently being used and the county expects to procure around 500 more in the coming weeks, Smith said.
Other parts of the order aim to clarify the original. One line, for example, notes that non-essential travel outside one’s own county is prohibited.
In other words, people should not travel elsewhere for recreational activities, said Preston Merchant, spokesperson with San Mateo County Health, as the crowding of public recreation facilities has prompted the closure of many parks.
“It’s consistent with trying to get people to stay where they’re located,” Merchant said. “There’s real danger when a person from one area visits another area … Your need for exercise and walking the dog should really be limited to your immediate surroundings — that’s the intent of the order. And that’s why many parks and beaches have essentially just shut down.”
The order’s new directives are below:
- Use of playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas, and similar recreational areas is prohibited. These areas must be closed to public use.
- Use of shared public recreational facilities such as golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, pools, and rock walls is prohibited. These facilities must be closed for recreational use.
- Sports requiring people to share a ball or other equipment must be limited to people in the same household.
- Essential businesses must develop a social distancing protocol before April 3.
- Most construction—residential and commercial—is prohibited.
- Funerals are limited to no more than 10 people attending.
- Essential businesses will include service providers that enable residential transactions (notaries, title companies, Realtors, etc.); funeral homes and cemeteries; moving companies, rental car companies and rideshare services that specifically enable essential activities.
- Essential businesses that continue to operate facilities must scale down operations to their essential component only.
Santa Clara County officials also announced Tuesday that they will be holding daily, Facebook Live coronavirus briefing for the public at 10 a.m. every weekday, starting Wednesday, on the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department’s Facebook page.
