San Rafael, CA - Health officers in seven Bay Area jurisdictions -- including Marin County -- are updating a previous stay-at-home order through May 3, 2020, to preserve critical hospital capacity across the region.
The previous three-week order was set to expire on April 7. While the prior order has been effective in reducing the rate of transmission of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), it is not enough. There has been a significant increase in the number of positive cases, hospitalization and deaths from COVID-19, which is beginning to strain health care resources.
The health officers have determined that more and stricter social distancing is needed to slow the rate of spread, prevent deaths, and stop the health care system from becoming overwhelmed.
“Extending the stay-at-home order should reduce the number of sick patients seeking care at one time, giving us time to acquire more medical supplies for providers who will be providing care to people sick with COVID-19,” said Dr. Chris Farnitano, health officer for Contra Costa County. “The extension will allow doctors and nurses to better treat those who do get sick and save countless lives.”
The new stay-at-home order will supersede the previous order and go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, March 31. It is a complement to the indefinite statewide stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
Like the previous local order, the new order requires people to stay at home except for doing essential activities, such as grocery shopping, in six counties: Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara, as well as the city of Berkeley. Non-essential businesses will remain closed.
The new order adds some clarifying language around essential business and activities, as well as some new directives, including:
- Use of playgrounds, dog parks, public picnic areas, and similar recreational areas is prohibited. Those areas must be closed to public use.
- Use of shared public recreational facilities such as golf courses, tennis and basketball courts, pools, and rock walls is prohibited. Those facilities must be closed for recreational use.
- Sports requiring people to share a ball or other equipment must be limited to people in the same household.
- Requires essential businesses to develop a social distancing protocol before April 3.
- Most construction — residential and commercial — is prohibited.
- Funerals limited to no more than 10 people attending.
- Essential businesses expanded to include service providers that enable residential transactions (notaries, title companies, real estate agents, etc.); funeral homes and cemeteries; moving companies, rental car companies and rideshare services that specifically enable essential activities.
- Essential businesses that continue to operate facilities must scale down operations to their essential component only.
In addition to the updated regional shelter-in-place order, Marin County Public Health issued an updated park closure order that provides clarity on park and open space access in Marin County. In summary, the new order states that individuals may access parks and open space areas that are local to their homes and are easily accessible by foot, bicycle or other non-motorized means, strictly for the purpose of engaging in exercise, as defined by the updated shelter-in-place order. Driving to access parks or open space areas is prohibited, except for individuals with disabilities with vehicles possessing current and valid disabled person parking placards or license plates.Above all, all visitors to any park location must continue to comply with social distancing requirements and are expected to stay local to the greatest extent possible.
Social distancing is the most powerful tool to slow the spread of COVID-19, a virus so new that it has no approved medicines or vaccines.
“What we need now, for the health of all our communities, is for people to stay home,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “Even though it has been difficult, the Bay Area has really stepped up to the challenge so far, and we need to reaffirm our commitment. We need more time to flatten the curve, to prepare our hospitals for a surge, and to do everything we can to minimize the harm that the virus causes to our communities.”
Here are helpful links:
For more information about COVID-19 activities in these areas, visit the Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, or Berkeley COVID-19 websites.