Sonoma County extends coronavirus shelter order through May 3, with new restrictions

Sonoma County residents and businesses must continue to follow a shelter-at-home order through at least May 3, with new provisions that allow rebuilding efforts from wildfires to continue but otherwise bar all but the most essential construction work while shutting down short-term vacation rentals and strengthening social distancing requirements on businesses allowed to remain open.

The new, extended order, issued late Tuesday by the county's health officer, Dr. Sundari Mase, came in the wake of an announcement that schools statewide were unlikely to reopen classrooms this instructional year, forestalling a return to campus for nearly 70,000 local K-12 students.

The move also comes amid a new breakdown of Sonoma County cases on Tuesday showing that two children are among the 85 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus, which can cause a serious respiratory disease. Information on the children's condition, including whether they had been hospitalized, was not immediately available.

The breakdown Tuesday night showed 17 local virus patients in hospital care, 61 not hospitalized, and the care of an additional seven unknown. Only one death, a man in his 60s, has been reported.

The extended order to stay home aligns Sonoma County with at least seven other Bay Area counties — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo and Solano — that moved to extend their orders this week. Napa County had yet to announce its plans late Tuesday while the statewide order handed down by Gov. Gavin Newsom has no set end date.

'All of the signs are pointing to the fact that the Bay Area is flattening the curve through these aggressive actions,' Sonoma County Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said. 'We have to keep that up. We can't let down our guard right now.'

The extension came the same day Santa Rosa police announced the death of a veteran police detective to complications of COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

Marylou Armer, 43, was a 20-year veteran of the department and among the first of eight officers with the agency to test positive for the virus. She was a Napa County resident and was the first COVID-19 patient to die in that county.

Also Tuesday, Petaluma Ecumenical Properties, or PEP Housing, announced that it had quarantined everyone at one of its 19 senior apartment complexes after a resident at one of the sites tested positive for the virus.

The case marked the first instance of COVID-19 documented at a senior housing complex in the county.

Among the local cases, 13 people have recovered from the disease

Mase said the region's aggressive intervention has demonstrated its effectiveness, reducing the predicted rate of illness substantially and suggesting the county is on track to meet its needs for treatment capacity in the coming weeks.

She also pointed to preliminary data from forecast modeling being conducted on the county's behalf by London Imperial College that she said indicated without shelter-in-place the caseload 'would be astronomic.'

'The key take away: shelter in place is working, and has actually helped us mitigate the situation and avoid or postpone many, many, many cases,' Mase said.

The moves were welcomed by state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, who stressed the importance of all nine Bay Area counties working in lock step to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

'As we move forward, I think it makes sense that all of us are on the same page with any extended shelter-at-home orders, extensions of school closures, and when we're going to open back up,' McGuire said. 'The nine Bay Area Counties, as a region, are interconnected, and our success is collective. I think it's critical that we move forward with one voice.'

Sonoma County's extension differs in key places from the original measure that took effect March 18.

The order allows construction work related to health care, affordable housing, temporary housing, projects for critical services, public works projects and limited residential and business construction or repair projects necessary to make the buildings habitable. It also specifically allows rebuilding to continue for homes damaged or destroyed by fires.

The order greatly restricts the real-estate industry, allowing virtual home showings for real estate agents. In-person tours are only permitted if virtual ones are not possible and if the owner of the property for sale no longer lives in the home. The showing must be made by appointment, and no more than two visitors are allowed in the home at a time with one person showing the property. The two visitors must live together.

It also severely restricts people from moving to new housing during the shelter-in-place. Moving is permitted only if it is not possible to reschedule a previously planned move or if the move is necessary for safety reasons or for the individual to remain housed. Anyone who moves into or out of the Bay Area is 'strongly urged to quarantine for 14 days,' according to the order.

It requires essential businesses like grocery stores to develop social distancing, hygiene and sanitation protocols by April 3, as well as scale down nonessential parts of businesses.

It also specifically prohibits short-term vacation rentals or use of motels and hotels except to shelter the homeless, those who are displaced or those requiring isolation because of coronavirus.

Mase's order limits funeral gatherings to 10 people or fewer. Under the previous measure, funeral and burial services were called out as examples of prohibited gatherings.

Several other essential businesses also were enumerated and allowed expressly to remain open.

'We had a lot a lot of questions from people,' Mase said. 'Many of these things came up from people as being things that needed to be further delineated.'

The order encompasses more recent moves by the health department to close all parks in the county, a prohibition that arose after the first weekend of the isolation order when thousands of people flocked to beaches and local parks, flouting guidance to mostly stay home.

Hopkins said she's confident Sonoma County residents can ride out the extended shelter-in-place order.

'Over the past few years we have been through hell and high water – literally…fires and floods,' Hopkins said. 'I've seen what an amazingly resilient community we are. I fully believe we can look past our own individual circumstance, and challenges and frustrations, to the greater good.'

Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct misinformation provided by a Sonoma County official on whether the order would affect wildfire-rebuilding construction. The name of London Imperial College was also corrected.