Yolo County coronavirus cases exceed state guideline. Here’s why reopening will continue
Yolo officials said the number of new coronavirus cases in the county over the past two weeks exceeded the limit the state of California set for counties to “self-attest” their own regional reopening plans. But it will not yet result in businesses closing again.
Yolo County in a Thursday morning news release announced that as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, health officials had reported 76 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the past 14 days.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration last month announced the plan to allow for “regional variance” in California’s economic reopening, the state announced several metrics that individual counties had to prove they could accelerate further along than the rest of the state.
Among those metrics is a requirement that counties experience no more than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. For Yolo County, which has a population of approximately 220,000, that equates to no more than 55 cases in two weeks, meaning the recent positive tests exceed that limit by 38 percent.
The state approved Yolo County’s plan May 20, when it met all of the necessary metrics. But the county noted in Thursday’s news release that exceeding one of these metrics after approval does not automatically trigger any corrective action or reversal of the business reopenings that have been phased in over the past few weeks— including dine-in restaurants, bars and retail shopping.
“Exceeding the attestation metric threshold does not result in an automatic rollback of re-opened activities or State withdrawal of the County’s attestation plan approval,” the county statement says. “Yolo County will be reviewing case data, including the source of community spread infections, to target communication to those most affected and determine if other protective measures are necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19.”
Health officials have attributed the upward trend in cases “to social gatherings and a lack of social distancing, where friends or family met, gathered and contracted COVID-19,” the news release said. Officials in neighboring Sacramento County have given a similar explanation for its own recent infection spike.
Despite the growth in new cases, Yolo County plans to allow several other types of personal service businesses to reopen starting Friday, while also rolling out new rules pertaining to outdoor religious services and youth sports as coronavirus numbers continue to grow in the region.
Nail salons, tattoo and massage parlors, piercing shops, cosmetologists and skin care services are among those being allowed to open as long as they follow state and county guidance, adhere to Yolo County’s mask requirement and otherwise follow social distancing protocols to maintain six feet whenever possible, the county announced Thursday in a news release.
Newsom said last week counties that have self-attested reopening plans approved by the state could allow those Phase 3 businesses to reopen starting this Friday. Yolo is among 53 out of 58 of California’s counties on that list, with San Mateo and Contra Costa counties added most recently.
Yolo County has also announced it will not allow “groups larger than 100 people to gather outside for religious services,” and that it is approving youth sports organizations to resume training and practices, but “no games or tournaments are allowed at this time.”
Yolo, as of Thursday morning, was the only county in the capital region with an order in place to make face coverings mandatory in most public places. It also released new guidelines this week for use of masks while working out at gyms and fitness centers.
County health officials say face coverings “should be worn at ALL times in a fitness facility except when the person is exerting themselves in a fitness activity where they can maintain at least 6 feet of social distancing.”
Gyms were permitted to reopen in the four-county capital region — Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo — as of June 12, along with a number of other types of businesses including bars, museums and zoos.
Yolo County has reported 291 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and 24 related deaths as of Wednesday afternoon. Seventeen of those fatalities have come at Stollwood Convalescent Hospital, part of a Woodland retirement complex, where an outbreak was first reported in April.
Why is Yolo County not on state’s ‘watch’ list?
The state Department of Public Health maintains a fluctuating list of counties for which data show significantly elevated COVID-19 activity. State health officials monitor a number of metrics, including hospitalization and positive test result rates, and then communicate with county health offices that exceed certain levels.
A total of 10 counties — Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Stanislaus and Tulare — were on that list as of Thursday morning. At some point, 13 of California’s 58 counties have appeared in the list — including Sacramento County for a few days early last week, when its hospitalization rate elevated before stabilizing.
The metrics and thresholds required to be added to that list are different from those required for counties to have their individual reopening plans initially approved, though.
The state defines “elevated disease transmission” as either a 14-day stretch with more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents, or more than 25 new cases per 100,000 for counties in which more than 8 percent of COVID-19 tests conducted have returned positive over the last seven days.
Yolo County says its positive test rate was it 3.26 percent as of Wednesday, so it would need to reach either 8 percent positive testing or exceed more than 220 new cases in two weeks to make the watch list for that reason.
This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 9:05 AM.
