Coronavirus updates: In California’s new reopening plan, when can bars, theaters open?
State health officials still consider coronavirus activity “widespread” across much of California, but as COVID-19 numbers have trended downward, a new system of guidelines is ushering in more business reopenings for industries, some of which have been yo-yoed for months by changing restrictions.
California’s new color-coded system places counties into four tiers based primarily on their recent rates of new infections: purple is “widespread,” red is “substantial,” orange is “moderate” and yellow is “minimal.”
About three dozen counties making up most of the state’s population are shaded purple on the state’s new map, including Sacramento County and most of its neighbors.
Even so, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state last week gave a green light for purple counties to open indoor hair salons and barbershops, and for retail shopping centers to open at 25% of their usual max capacity.
With a bit less fanfare, the new tiered system also allows for the reopening and resumption of indoor operations for many of the businesses Newsom had ordered closed statewide July 13 in counties that are red-tier or better.
Dine-in restaurants, movie theaters, museums, zoos and card rooms can all open indoors with varying capacity requirements in red, orange or yellow counties, according to the state’s COVID-19 website.
Bars, which had been closed statewide both indoor and outdoor since early July, must stay closed in purple and red counties. But bars, breweries and distilleries can open on an outdoor-only basis in orange counties, and can resume business indoors with a 50% capacity limit in yellow counties. Only two sparsely populated counties — Alpine and Modoc — were in the yellow tier as of Tuesday.
Statewide, COVID-19 has infected more than 712,000 people and killed at least 13,163 residents, according to Wednesday’s data update from CDPH, which saw 145 new deaths added.
But hospitalization and intensive care unit figures are down significantly from late July; the percentage of tests returning positive has declined gradually in the past few weeks; and Tuesday and Wednesday’s respective increases of about 3,700 and 4,250 new lab-confirmed cases were two of the smallest daily increases since mid-June.
Health leaders, from state Health and Human Services Director Dr. Mark Ghaly to Sacramento County health chief Dr. Peter Beilenson, have offered some cautious optimism that we appear to be bending the curve once again.
Sacramento County reaches 300 virus deaths
Sacramento County, home to roughly 1.5 million residents, surpassed 300 confirmed COVID-19 deaths over the course of the pandemic, as of a Wednesday update to local public health officials’ data dashboard.
At least 304 have now died in the county: 176 residents of the capital city, 60 in unincorporated areas, 26 in Elk Grove, 14 in Citrus Heights, 14 in Rancho Cordova, six in Folsom, six in Galt and two with a specific address not yet confirmed, the county says.
The county now reports that 130 residents died in the first four weeks of August, representing more than 40% of the entire nearly six-month death toll. The month’s total, which doesn’t yet include Aug. 29-31, continues to grow as cause of death determinations can take up to a week or more in some cases.
August has been by far Sacramento’s worst month of the health crisis, blowing past July’s 85 fatalities from the respiratory disease.
As the death toll swells, there’s optimism from other metrics that COVID-19 is on the downswing in the capital region — and, because death can lag a few weeks behind initial infection, that means there’s hope that the rapidly increasing fatality figures will also slow down soon.
The county reported Tuesday that only 5.6% of tests returned positive for the week ending Aug. 29. That figure — which experts say is a solid indicator of the true spread of the virus while accounting for fluctuations in testing capacity, and is now a key component of the state’s tier system — has been on a steady decline since the rolling weekly average peaked at 8.5% on Aug. 7, county data show.
Hospitalization rates are falling, too, in line with the statewide trend: 187 patients with lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus were hospitalized in Sacramento County hospitals, according to state data updated Wednesday, with 54 requiring intensive care. Those metrics have dropped from a late July peak of about 280 in hospitals and 90 in ICUs.
Reopening — indoor and outdoor — begins across Sacramento region
Sacramento County gave hair salons and barbershops the OK to reopen this week in line with the new state guidelines. Beilenson called the reopening “reasonable,” but only if employees and clients wear masks during the cutting, except for beard trimmings.
Arden Fair Mall opened back up Monday, with more than half of its retailers opening their doors as of Tuesday, according to the mall’s website.
In a significant transformation days ahead of the new guidelines being issued, Stones Gambling Hall, a card room in Citrus Heights, reopened last week for “open air gaming,” according to its website and social media pages.
The property set up more than a dozen card tables in a large tent in its parking lot area, complete with misters to combat the summer heat. Stones requires mask use by employees and patrons, and it set up partitions between poker players, who can sit eight to a table (nine is the standard norm). Both the state’s old watchlist system and the new color-coded system allow for gambling halls to operate outdoors, even in counties with the tightest restrictions. Stones is open 24 hours a day.
Businesses have had a comparative head start in El Dorado County, which is tiered as a red “substantial” county after never making it onto the original CDPH watchlist due to its relatively low infection and hospitalization numbers.
Indoor dining got the go-ahead there at the start of this week; on Monday, the first day back, restaurants in downtown Placerville and the rest of the county could reopen indoor dining rooms at 25% their usual capacity. Several did so, but other owners were more cautious and chose to hold off. At those that did open indoors, many diners still chose to eat outside on the patio, even with temperatures well into the 90s and air quality poor from wildfire smoke.
Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba counties are all purple as of Tuesday, due to daily case rates higher than seven new cases per 100,000 residents. Counties must remain in their tier for at least three weeks before moving forward. To move into the next tier, a county must meet criteria for at least two straight weeks.
The list is updated weekly on Tuesdays. The red tier’s criteria are between 4 and 7 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, and between 5% and 8% of tests returning positive. For the orange tier, it’s 1 to 3.9 new cases per 100,000, and a test positivity between 2% and 4.9%. For yellow, it’s less than 1 new case per 100,000, and a test positivity under 2%. Counties can only advance one tier at a time, the state says.
Amid COVID-19 pandemic, Sacramento home prices surge
Median home prices in Sacramento County and the four-county region (Sacramento, El Dorado, Placer and Yolo) were up roughly 10% last month compared to the previous August, according to data from appraiser and real estate analyst Ryan Lundquist.
That’s something of a surprise given the economic uncertainty that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented.
The real estate market is out of balance. Analysts say there still appear to be plenty of buyers for more low- and median-priced homes, as well as homes that are topping $600,000, with many of the buyers for higher-priced homes coming from the Bay Area. But supply of resale homes in Sacramento County hit a 20-year-low in August, creating a sellers’ market and forcing buyers into bidding competition.
The predominant concern is that continually rising house values will price more people out of a market that already lacks inventory.
“We haven’t scratched the surface of the economy feeling the effects of this,” said Kellie Swayne of Dunnigan Realtors, a board member for the Sacramento Association of Realtors. “The worst is yet to come.”
Eviction, farmworker relief among COVID-centered bills sent to Newsom
The California Legislature this week ended its 2020 session, sending more than a dozen bills focused on COVID-19 response to Newsom’s desk.
Newsom signed one of them, an urgent eviction relief measure, hours before the state’s ban on evictions was set to expire at midnight Tuesday.
As many as 4 million Californians are believed to be at risk of eviction due to unpaid rent. Assembly Bill 3088 provides five months of relief for some renters who’ve experienced the worst of pandemic-related financial distress.
The Legislature passed a trio of bills included in a farmerwork COVID-19 relief package conceived by Assemblyman Robert Rivas, D-Hollister. The key piece of legislation in the package, AB 2034, directs the Division of Occupational Safety and Health to share information on preventing COVID-19 to agricultural employees. The state is also supposed to compile information about investigations into conditions, practices, injuries or illnesses.
“This year, we have seen farmworkers putting their health and, indeed, their lives on the line to help keep us fed during this pandemic,” Rivas said in a statement. “They have continued to work day-after-day despite the threat of illness or death from the virus.”
If signed by Newsom, California would be the first state to approve such a package for farmworkers, Rivas said.
Also this week, the Legislature passed a bill sending $250 million to the Department of Public Health to create a stockpile of personal protective equipment to be used in the event of another pandemic or health emergency, and for health care employers including hospitals and nursing homes to have their own extended supplies. If Newsom signs the bill, CDPH would have one year to do so, while hospitals and others would have until 2023 to do so.
Sacramento area by the numbers: 27,000 infections, more than 400 dead
Sacramento County’s infection totals have increased steadily since the surge that started in June, but some of the nearby counties that make up the rest of the six-county region — El Dorado, Placer, Yolo, Sutter and Yuba — have seen declines in new cases.
Still, the six counties as of Wednesday morning combined for 408 COVID-19 deaths among more than 27,000 lab-confirmed infections.
Sacramento County surpassed 18,000 positive cases Monday and reached 304 deaths as of Wednesday’s update from the local health office, which added another 127 cases for an all-time total of 18,413. Of the infection total, health officials estimate about 14,925 patients have recovered, meaning roughly 3,200 cases are considered active.
Yolo County health officials have reported a total of 2,451 COVID-19 cases and 52 deaths. The county reported 14 new cases and no new deaths Wednesday after reporting 18 new cases on Tuesday, 34 new cases on Monday and 77 new cases over the weekend. The county last Thursday reported two new deaths due to the virus.
Seven patients in the county were hospitalized as of Wednesday afternoon, four of them in ICUs, according to state data. The county had four ICU beds remaining.
The county has seen outbreaks at several long-term care facilities, which account for 141 of the total number of cases and 26 of the deaths. Woodland’s Stollwood Convalescent Hospital reported an outbreak in April and it is still the most severe outbreak in the county. There, 66 people connected to the facility have been infected with coronavirus and 17 died. The facility will close permanently this month.
Placer County has reported a total of 3,062 COVID-19 cases and 34 deaths due to the virus, reporting 35 new cases Wednesday and one new death, the second fatality since Monday. There are now 37 people hospitalized in the county who have tested positive. Placer says 33 are hospitalized specifically due to COVID-19, with 12 of them in the ICU for the disease.
The county was removed from the state’s regional coronavirus watchlist, owing to its relatively low transmission rate, but is in the purple “substantial” tier under the new system. The county health office, in a detailed COVID-19 update posted last Friday, said it was placed there due to the inclusion of data from early August; officials expect easing of restrictions Sept. 8 “if trends continue in the right direction.”
Placer County said it has learned from CDPH that schools will still be allowed to resume on-campus learning Tuesday, as removal from the watchlist had indicated earlier.
El Dorado County has reported a total of 980 COVID-19 cases and two deaths due to the virus. The county reported seven new cases Wednesday, six cases Tuesday and 16 on Monday. There were no hospitalized patients infected with the virus in the county Wednesday. The county has 14 ICU beds available, according to state data.
Sutter County has reported a total of 1,436 cases and 10 deaths as of Tuesday evening. Ten people are currently being hospitalized, with three in the ICU.
In neighboring Yuba County, 944 people have been infected and six have died. Yuba added 12 new cases Monday. Six people in Yuba County are being hospitalized, with one in the ICU.
World numbers: More than 860,000 dead from coronavirus
The global death toll for COVID-19 has exceeded 860,000, according to data maintained by Johns Hopkins University as of Wednesday afternoon. More than 185,000 of those come in the United States, which for several weeks has accounted for more than one-fifth of the worldwide death toll.
The United States also recently hit a milestone of 6 million total infections, also more than one-fifth the global total of 25.9 million, according to Johns Hopkins tracking data.
Brazil is next in both death toll and cases, with close to 4 million infections and over 123,000 deaths. India is third in reported infections and deaths with more than 3.75 million and 66,000, respectively. Over 65,000 have also died in Mexico, where the reported infection total is more than 600,000. Russia has surpassed 1 million infections, but has reported only about 17,000 deaths.
After Mexico in terms of death toll are the United Kingdom at about 41,500, Italy at nearly 35,500, France at over 30,000, Spain and Peru each at just over 29,000, Iran at 21,800 and Colombia at a little more than 20,000.
What is COVID-19? How is the coronavirus spread?
Coronavirus is spread through contact between people within 6 feet of each other, especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s possible to catch the disease COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms of the virus that causes COVID-19 include fever, cough and shortness of breath, which may occur two days to two weeks after exposure.
Most people develop only mild symptoms, but some people develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal. The disease is especially dangerous to the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 9:01 AM.
