First, the good news: Monterey County's shelter-in-place order is working, keeping the doubling rate of Covid-19 cases to about 14 days—a win when it comes to containing the spread of the virus.
"The current shelter-in-place order is working, it is slowing down the spread of the virus and decreasing, and hopefully will decrease the number of people who get sick all at the same time in Monterey County," County Health Officer Edward Moreno said in a press briefing on Friday afternoon.
The bad news: That means he will extend the shelter-in-place order, which is currently set to expire on May 3.
"Because it’s working, I’m intending on extending the order," Moreno said.
He did not provide a date on which he will release a revised order or how long the new order will last, but said he is in discussions with health officials for the state of California and San Francisco Bay Area counties about whether to loosen some of the restrictions on which businesses may operate and how.
In addition, Moreno said the public should expect a requirement to wear masks or face coverings in public; in Santa Cruz County, that requirement takes effect tonight at midnight.
"I haven’t signed a similar order yet, but I'm working on one," Moreno said.
Face coverings are intended to create a barrier over the nose and mouth, so people who might unknowingly be infectious are less likely to spread droplets through the air and potentially infect other people.
County health officials have communicated with nearly 1,000 individuals through contact tracing, or communicating with specific people who came in contact with an infected individual to notify them to isolate themselves to avoid potentially spreading the virus. "It’s one tool we have in public health to contain the spread of the virus," Moreno said.
His staff has not released any public announcements about specific locations where people have become infected or where they worked, Moreno said, because the risk is widespread, and nearly 30 percent of confirmed cases in Monterey County can't be linked to contact with a specific individual.
"It’s not safe to leave your home during a pandemic," he said. "Any time someone leaves their home they’re running the risk of being exposed to the virus.
"It could be in a store, or a park where they were walking. It’s out there, it’s everywhere, and it’s every part of the county."
(2) comments
Time to start opening things up. The statistics do not support an extended shelter in place order. Let businesses open!!! They can use social distancing, face masks and can sanitize their stores. Hospitals are EMPTY!!! People are getting hours cut at CHOMP because there are not any patients. The fact is that the death rate for people under 60 is minimal in our area. There is no reason to limit everyone's movement when only the "at risk" populations should take extreme precautions. Monterey County is not NYC or LA County or the SF Bay Area. Get people back to work!!! Get our community back to work!!!
Well, first of all, this is nuts. Mr. Moreno believes the order should be extended, and says it's working, but has no modification he's made to it, and seems to want to scare people by saying it's "everywhere" you go in the County when you step outside your door. (It's not - you are more likely to bump into a coronavirus in the grocery store than you are in a large park or National Forest.) The county and state orders should be changed or tailored as time goes on; data currently indicates that statewide, the peak in cases and resource use is around the beginning of May, and that statewide, we'll be at zero deaths per day from COVID-19 before the end of June. Obviously, these projections signify we should also carefully tailor and alter the orders in effect. I don't consider it helpful however to add even more restrictions, such as requirements to wear masks when most people are doing this anyway. It's also unhelpful for the Weekly to be promoting the use of undercover officers against businesses and individuals. We don't need a Stalinesque societal response in order to address a pandemic.
Finally, please read this petition addressing how to "reopen America," and if you agree with it, please sign and share. https://www.policiesforamerica.com/openamerica/
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