Sonoma County health officer says Glass fire delays local business reopenings

The Glass fire will keep Sonoma County from imminently advancing to a less restrictive stage in the state’s four-part business reopening plan, Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said Friday.

The county remains the only one of the Bay Area’s nine counties still stuck in the bottom tier of reopening — for areas with widespread coronavirus transmission — based on two key public health benchmarks measuring spread of the contagion and overall percentage of daily infections per 100,000 residents.

In the second half of September, the county was making solid progress suppressing COVID-19, and after about two months, was finally on the cusp of moving to the next level of reopening.

Then the Glass fire burst on the scene a week ago, sharply curtailing daily virus testing and depleting local public health operations like test processing and contact tracing of individuals infected. The fire-related complications dashed hopes of gaining permission as soon as the coming week from state health officials to resume limited indoor food and beverage services at area restaurants, wineries and breweries plus reopen an array of other business and public venues.

If not for the wildfire, Mase said during a press briefing, she was “expecting” the county to jump forward to the next, less onerous community reopening stage the week of Oct. 5.

Now with the significant number of local residents, including a big group of seniors from Oakmont Village and from two Santa Rosa skilled nursing centers, forced to evacuate because of the latest fire she has expressed concerns about the potential for a spike in new virus infections. That’s due to people perhaps getting exposed to COVID-19 while maintaining temporary shelter with extended family and friends.

Should the county suffer a rise in new virus cases in the next couple of weeks the elevated transmission could further delay reopening of more business sectors.

During Friday’s press briefing, Sonoma County Supervisor Chair Susan Gorin acknowledged the hardship local businesses continue enduring, particularly restaurants whose outdoor dining has been hindered by a week of poor air quality.

“I’m very aware and very concerned about the impact on small businesses, especially in a smoky environment,“ Gorin said, and she wants to see more economic activity resume ”as expeditiously as possible.“

Gorin would like to see fitness centers reopen because she thinks they are less of a risk for virus transmission than other businesses. She encouraged state elected officials and Mase to petition state public health officials to allow the county to reopen more businesses not now allowed under the state’s COVID-19 reopening plan.

Once the county manages to advance a notch per state guidelines, it will be able to permit limited indoor operations at restaurants, wineries, fitness centers, movie theaters and dance studios, among others. Also, other commercial and public entities, such as clothing shops, shoe stores, florists, jewelers and libraries would be allowed to expand indoor capacity for customers to 50% from 25%.

“We are really close” to advancement, Mase said.

Supervisor David Rabbitt, during a phone interview Friday, said he’s talked to the area’s state representatives about the possibility of getting the state to allow the county to separate its coronavirus statistics associated with senior care homes from its overall county COVID-19 data.

Nursing homes countywide have been a hot spot for virus transmission and account for more than 75% of deaths related to the coronavirus.

During the press briefing, Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, said Marin County was allowed to carve out from its overall pandemic disease data COVID-19 statistics related to a large virus outbreak at a skilled nursing home.

But Mase said in Sonoma County, the number of new cases related to residents of skilled nursing homes and residential care facilities for the elderly has been declining in recent weeks.

“I don't think right now at this time, removing the skilled nursing facility cases would make a difference for us,” the health officer said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.