Sacramento County residents directed to ‘stay at home’ and wait out coronavirus
In yet another dramatic move to fight the spread of coronavirus, Sacramento County health officials on Tuesday afternoon called on all residents, not just the elderly, to stay at home effective immediately unless they have essential chores to do, such as grocery shopping, banking, restaurant food pickups, or health appointments.
The directive stops short of being a formal order, but represents a stricter stance than Gov. Gavin Newsom called for Monday night when he asked all restaurants and gyms to close, and for anyone 65 and older to hunker down at home for their safety.
“A directive is an order by another name, and it’s crucial that we all follow it,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said. “This is what we need to do to flatten this curve and prevent our health care system from being overwhelmed. It will still allow people to engage in all the essential functions of life, to go grocery shopping, to keep essential medical appointments, and to get outdoors and take a run or walk, as long as it’s at a safe distance from others.
“Life will change, but there’s no reason to panic,” he said.
Board of Supervisors chairman Phil Serna said the county is “at an inflection point,” and is coming to grips with an “unparalleled” public health crisis.
“I think we’re at that point where as the largest local government in the Sacramento Valley we have an obligation to do everything we can to protect the health of the public,” Serna said.
The county also is calling on employers and businesses to send all but essential employees home to work via telecommuting and teleconferencing.
“Although community mitigation measures can be disruptive, these recommendations are to protect the public’s health,” county officials said in an announcement
Those moves — dramatic and historic — will shut most commerce in Sacramento and create a largely stay-at-home society for at least the next few weeks as health officials monitor the spread of the virus and deal with its sickest patients.
The directive is similar to an order issued Monday in six Bay Area counties for residents to “shelter in place” at their homes and only go out if necessary for basic needs.
Comparing this advisory to Bay Area order
Neither the Sacramento nor Bay Area directives are being enforced by police, as of yet, and community leaders and health officials say they are hoping businesses, restaurants, bars and residents will respect the guidelines. County officials said they have the authority to issue a formal and police enforceable health order, but are stopping short of that.
County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson said he is encouraging residents to call his agency’s phone line, 916-875-5881, to report bars or other establishments that appear to be failing to abide by the directive.
He said county officials may contact those establishments to explain the rules. “I’m taking this very seriously,” Beilenson said. If Sacramentans do not follow the county’s request, Beilenson said he could turn the directive into a formal order, enforceable by law.
While Bay Area officials are using the term “shelter in place,” Sacramento health officials are calling their action a “stay at home” directive.
The difference, Sacramento officials say, is nuanced. Beilenson has said he resists the notion of requiring people to fully shut down their lives. He said people can still take walks, including people over age 65 and people with chronic illnesses. He said people can visit with each other in their homes, but should do so only if healthy, and should maintain a 6-foot distance.
At midday Tuesday, Davis City Hall issued a notice “urging” residents to shelter in place, recommending similar measures as Yolo County’s number of known infected cases doubled to four people, including a young adult “with a chronic health problem” who was hospitalized and confirmed positive for COVID-19.
What should I do?
Global public health experts agree the United States is at a critical point when it comes to preventing hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of people from dying from COVID-19. Humans have no natural immunity and there is no vaccine.
Testing for the disease has been limited, but there are signs it is spreading widely through California communities, and the instances of infection will rise with more testing.
Health officials say the coronavirus has an incubation period of anywhere from two days to 14 days. Those who are now infected are likely spreading it as they move from place to place. Epidemiologists have said the risk of coronavirus infections passed from person to person will remain high for weeks and possibly months.
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath.Healthy, younger people are much less likely to fall seriously ill. But the elderly and others with weaker immune systems have alarmingly high fatality rates. In China, about one in every six people over the age of 80 died after contracting the disease. Nearly one in four of the patients died at the Kirkland, Washington, nursing home that is the epicenter for the disease in the Pacific Northwest.
The goal, local and national health officials say, is to slow the spread of the virus enough so that hospitals and the larger health care system do not become overwhelmed and unable to treat some of the sickest patients, as has happened in other parts of the world.
Death toll continues to rise
Newsom on Sunday said the state’s healthcare network is ramping up its readiness by securing more ventilators, preparing more urgent care beds and cutting back on elective surgeries to create more capacity to deal with a potential onslaught of highly sick patients.
Notably, in issuing the directive for people age 65 and older to stay home, Newsom and counties are exempting “individuals who work in essential services, such as hospital and health care workers, pharmacists, peace officers, firefighters, staff at skilled nursing facilities and residential care facilities for the elderly, and other essential workers.”
County officials say the number of people in Sacramento who have tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday morning is 40, up from 33 on Sunday. There have been two deaths, an elderly woman in a assisted living facility and a Sacramento city schools substitute teacher in her 70s.
County health official Beilenson said there likely are more people in the county with the virus than 40, but due to lack of widespread testing, the true number is unknown.
Health officials say about 80 percent of people who get the virus will have no or only mild symptoms, but the virus is proving lethal to older people and to people with chronic respiratory and other illnesses.
The California Department of Public Health in an update of statewide numbers earlier Tuesday said 472 cases of the coronavirus and 11 deaths have been confirmed.
Nationwide, the number of cases surpassed 5,800 and the death reached 100 while worldwide more than 200,000 were infected and of those 8,000 have died.
What will be opened, what may be closed
Although some restaurants have fully closed this week, Beilenson said restaurants can remain open to provide take-out meals, and foot delivery services will remain in operation to bring restaurant meals to homes.
Among businesses allowed to stay open are banks, healthcare facilities, hardware stores, pharmacies, and home service companies.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said he expects residents “to act appropriately” to help stem the spread of the virus, which is lethal to some, in hopes that it can be tamped down before it creates mass infections as has happened in China, Italy and other countries.
“Today is a test,” the mayor said at noon on Tuesday. “I presume everyone is going to comply with the directions.” But, he acknowledged, “it is not a legal requirement at this point. It is not a police enforcement issue. It is a strongest of strong requests.”
Many Sacramento businesses have already responded by shutting down operations and sending people to work at home, or by furloughing or reportedly issuing layoffs.
Macy’s, which operates two stories in the county, announced it is closing all its stores through the end of the month as of Wednesday.
The state Legislature also announced this week it has called an early recess. Sacramento State announced it would postpone spring commencement.
Dozens of major restaurants have already closed. Starbucks is among coffee outlets that continue to serve, but have closed their seating areas.
And transit and airlines say they have been cutting service due to lack of passengers and the desire to reduce spread of the virus.
The City Council met Tuesday afternoon to discuss programs that can help businesses harmed during the next few key weeks or months, and come up with an urgency law that prohibits renters from being evicted if they lose their paychecks during the “stay at home” period and are unable to pay rent.
The Sacramento directive involves the same types of restrictions Newsom outlined on Monday when he urged all movie theaters and gyms across California to shut down temporarily, and for restaurants to close except for takeout service. That order built upon and escalated the governor’s directive a day earlier, when he said all bars and nightclubs statewide should close and that restaurants should limit their occupancy, and that Californians over age 65 should voluntarily self-isolate at home.
This week’s restrictions come a week after the country and state progressive squeezed the size of groups that are allowed to gather.
Last week, Newsom asked for cancellation of events that would draw 1,000 or more. The next day, he amended that to 250. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention amended that to 50 persons, and on Monday, President Trump called for no groupings of more than 10 people, adding that the guidance could be necessary into the summer.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 2:37 PM.