Contra Costa Co .: Progress on Covid-19 Drives Slight Relaxation of Limits

Sam Richards

Bay City News Foundation

Contracosta County health officials said Wednesday that a slight decrease in COVID-19-related hospitalizations and positive COVID-19 test results reflected a slowing expansion of coronavirus spreads in several social distances. He said he is urging the rules to be relaxed.

“Based on what we can see, we can test positive rates and hospital admissions to be cautiously optimistic that the county case has a progressive downward trend.”

The average number of patients admitted to hospital using COVID-19 in Contra Costa for the last 3 weeks has decreased slightly from 103 per day on August 5 to 96 per day on Monday. ..

The average percentage of tests performed on positive Contra Costa dropped from 8.8% on 6 August to 7.4% on Monday.

In light of that improvement, on Wednesday Contra Costa County announced a small change to its health discipline to allow certain business sectors to reactivate outdoors. The changes implemented on Friday include:

-Faceless personal care services such as nail salons and massages may start operating outdoors according to industry guidelines issued by the country.

-The gym and fitness center can be operated outdoors according to state guidelines.

-Contra Costa hotels, motels and short term rental units (such as Vrbo and Airbnb) can be used for personal and recreational trips as well as for basic business purposes.

Hair salons and barber shops are permitted to perform limited work outdoors in Contra Costa County, with permission, but no outbreaks have been reported.

In Alameda County, last Friday, health officials issued a revised shelter order, which will also come into effect this Friday.

-Open outdoor public public swimming and wading pools, capacity limits, lane restrictions to allow physical distances, reservations only (swimming fitness classes are restricted)

-Personal service providers such as hair salons, barbers, nail salons, skin care and wax services, non-medical massages. Serves outdoors in accordance with applicable state and local regulations.

-You can sample without meals at the winery with outdoor tasting facilities.

However, ContraCosta Health Services representatives say the key data indicators for pandemic data are at dangerously high levels this month in ContraCosta County, even though they haven’t increased as in June and July.

“Everyone needs to understand that this is the reason we continue to do what we do and stay alert,” Farnitano said.

As of Wednesday, both Alameda and Contra Costa counties remain on the county supervision list of the State Department of Health.

Contra Costa health officials are encouraging businesses to also consider the poor air quality of the region when planning a re-start, given all the smoke from many wildfires in the region.

Due to the smoky air, doing business outdoors is not feasible and can even be dangerous. The county has also issued a smoke health advisory, encouraging all residents to stay inside, with doors and windows closed.

The previous Contra Costa Health Order remains valid. Health officials ask residents to keep their face covers on when they go out or when they are near people outside their family. Practice physical distance. Stay home from work or school when they feel unwell. Wash your hands well.

Details of the Contra Costa update, including the full text of the order, are available at cchealth.org / coronavirus. An overview of Alameda County orders can be found at https: //covid-19.acgov.org/covid19-assets/docs/shelter-in-place/20-14c-summary-eng.pdf.

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