Yolo County puts numerical cap on social gatherings in amended COVID-19 health order
With local coronavirus numbers showing some signs of increase, Yolo County officials are putting a strict limit on attendance for social gatherings: No parties or get-togethers of more than 16, the amended health order says.
The county, home to Woodland, Davis and West Sacramento, announced the new rule Wednesday morning, expanding restrictions beyond those within guidelines issued by the state earlier this month.
The California Department of Public Health in an Oct. 9 update said private gatherings should be held outdoors only, should last no longer than two hours and may not include members from more than three different households. Prior to that, non-essential gatherings involving people outside of one’s own household had technically been prohibited since Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order was issued March 19.
Yolo’s health order builds on the state’s recent requirements with the additional attendance cap. It works out to 5 1/3 people per household for a gathering involving the maximum three households.
“Due to rising confirmed cases in the County and the approaching winter weather where indoor gatherings are more likely to occur, the County has taken the proactive measure to add a limit to the number of those gathering (16 people),” Yolo County said in a news release.
The amended order notes that the county still “strongly discourages gatherings of any size.”
Both the county and state guidelines are phrased as requirements, not recommendations, and Yolo’s health order states that violations of the order are considered a misdemeanor. In practice, though, parties held indoors at private residences or outdoors in excess of attendance limits are unlikely to draw enforcement response except in the most egregious instances, as has been the case in most jurisdictions throughout the pandemic.
But Yolo County leaders are urging residents to adhere to the guidelines, and to keep as many gatherings as possible virtual or limited to one’s own household, especially as colder weather approaches and starts to keep people indoors.
“Gatherings have proven to be one of our most pressing challenges in containing the spread of the virus,” Yolo County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gary Sandy said in prepared remarks in Wednesday’s news release.
“With the holidays just around the corner it will be necessary for everyone to keep them small in size and among immediate family and close friends only. It is everyone’s responsibility to do what they can to stop the spread of the virus and in so doing protect our community’s health and safeguard the continuing operation of local businesses.”
Is Yolo County at risk of demotion by state?
Sandy cites the need to support continued operation of businesses in Yolo County.
Is local COVID-19 activity threatening the reopening process?
If its rate of new cases continues to increase along a trend similar to the one observed in the past two weeks of CDPH tier updates, Yolo County could indeed have to shut some businesses back down within the next several weeks. The county obviously hopes to avoid this.
Yolo County has been in the red tier, the second most restrictive within the state’s new four-tier framework, since Sept. 28. In this week’s tier list update from CDPH, which assessed data for the week of Oct. 4-10, the state reported Yolo at 5.3 new daily cases per 100,000 residents, and 2.6% of diagnostic COVID-19 tests returning positive.
Both rates are up, from 4.2 new cases per 100,000 and 2.4% positivity the previous survey week. Two weeks ago, Yolo had been at 3.3 new cases and 2.2% positivity, both of which qualified it for the orange tier (counties need two consecutive weeks meeting all requirements for a less restrictive tier before they can be promoted).
In other words, the daily case rate has increased by about 1.0 per 100,000 residents, and test positivity has risen by 0.2%, in each of the last two weeks assessed. Yolo’s case rate per 100,000 has crept more than halfway back to the purple-tier threshold of 7.0 during that stretch.
Two straight weeks failing to stay in at least red-tier numbers would land Yolo back into the purple tier, meaning restaurants, places of worship, gyms and numerous other types of businesses and activities across the county would have to close back down for indoor operations for at least three weeks. So far, Shasta, Tehama and Riverside have been the only counties demoted in the state’s current reopening framework, which started Sept. 1.
Neither California’s gathering guidelines nor Yolo’s supersede rules already released for business sectors that “manage gatherings as part of their operations, such as wedding venues, restaurants, and religious services,” the Yolo news release clarifies. Those guidelines are detailed separately.
According to Newsom’s office and CDPH, the state guidelines are a minimum baseline. Counties may impose tighter restrictions if they choose to, but cannot loosen or lift elements beyond what the state has laid out, most recently in its four-tiered reopening framework.
Yolo throughout the pandemic has taken a tighter approach than California as a whole. The county put its own shelter-in-place order into effect one day before Newsom announced the statewide order. It also issued an enforceable mask mandate in late April, ahead of the state face covering mandate that began June 18.
During the health crisis, at least 3,086 Yolo County residents have tested positive for the coronavirus and 56 have died from the disease, according to the county’s online COVID-19 data dashboard. The county of about 220,000 people has suffered more virus deaths, and more per capita, than four of its neighbors in the six-county capital region. Only Sacramento County (474 dead among 1.5 million residents, as of Tuesday) has higher numbers.
Sacramento, Yolo, Yuba and Sutter counties all remain in the red tier, while Yolo and El Dorado are in orange. None of the six counties had COVID-19 metrics update high enough or low enough in this week’s state update to give the first of two consecutive weeks required to be promoted or demoted.
This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 12:21 PM.
