Public health officers across six Bay Area counties intend to extend the shelter-in-place order through the end of May.
Today’s announcement from the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department promised revised orders “later this week.” Officials said the imminent order will include “limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower-risk activities.”
The current order, enacted last month, was set to expire Sunday (May 3).
“Thanks to the collective effort and sacrifice of the 7 million residents across our jurisdictions, we have made substantial progress in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, ensuring our local hospitals are not overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, and saving lives,” the county health officers said in a statement. “At this stage of the pandemic, however, it is critical that our collective efforts continue so that we do not lose the progress we have achieved together. Hospitalizations have leveled, but more work is needed to safely re-open our communities. Prematurely lifting restrictions could easily lead to a large surge in cases.”
Health officers also plan to release a set of broad indicators to track progress in preparedness and response to COVID-19, in alignment with the framework being used by the state.
“Future easing of restrictions requires that each jurisdiction and various sectors continue to rapidly build critical infrastructure and systems to respond to and control the spread of coronavirus infections and to ensure the health-care system’s ability to meet demand,” health officials said.
For those anxious to reopen businesses and resurrect the dormant economy, the health departments did not convey encouraging news.
“This global pandemic of COVID-19 is still in its early stages,” health officers said. “The virus spreads easily, testing capacity is limited and expanding slowly, and vaccine development is just beginning. We expect to be responding to COVID-19 in our communities for a long time. As effective as our efforts have been, if we move too fast to ease restrictions, the potential of exponential spread could have grave impacts to health and wellness of our residents as well as the economy.”
In addition to Santa Clara, the shelter-in-place directives involve the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and the city of Berkeley.
