Sonoma County supervisors, public health leaders hear alarm from hospital officials, calls from others to loosen events ban

A wide-ranging public meeting Wednesday hosted by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on the latest public health order banning large gatherings turned into a referendum about the merits of aggressive COVID-19 measures nearly two years into the pandemic.

The health order, which took effect Jan. 12, was aimed at curbing the spread of the highly infectious omicron variant and, as Wednesday’s testimony made clear, blunting the impact of a rapidly rising caseload on local hospitals.

During the virtual meeting, local hospital officials came forward with their clearest accounts yet of how they are being overwhelmed by new COVID-19 infections among patients and staff.

“In general, we're asking everyone in the face of an epic crisis to step up and join us because your hospitals in this community are at risk,” said Frank Beirne, interim CEO of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. He shared with the board a request for staffing assistance and regulatory relief needed to reduce workforce strain on hospital systems.

Later in the special, five-hour board meeting, local parents, school officials and others impacted by the health order pressed the county to exempt certain gatherings, including school sports games and other live events.

Those calls were countered by pleas from local health advocates and medical professionals who asked the county to stay the course with current restrictions until the omicron surge subsides.

The conflicting calls revealed stark disparities in how communities within the county are experiencing this moment of the pandemic, with exhaustion from the nearly 22-month global health crisis and new infections both peaking.

The meeting exposed even jarring disagreements between top school officials over what students — struggling with isolation, anxiety over coronavirus exposure at school, and a search for consistency — need most at this time.

The health order prohibits, until at least Feb. 11, indoor gatherings of 50 or more people and outdoor gatherings of 100 or more. Core school activities, such as daily classes and outdoor recess, were exempt. But the order affected sporting events, which has drawn the ire of parents, who have pressed district and county officials for loosened spectator limits.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, who ordered the new limits last week, has appealed to local residents to avoid leaving their homes except for school, work and other essential tasks such as trips to the grocery story or doctor’s office.

During Wednesday’s meeting, supervisors sought to address concerns among some local residents and businesses that the order was issued without adequate warning or community engagement.

Mase was asked why Sonoma County had banned large gatherings at this point when other counties in the Bay Area had not. She said the county had the third highest increase in hospitalizations, by percent, of all 58 counties in the state.

Mase also said Sonoma County had the fifth lowest hospital bed capacity of all counties in the state. Emergency departments are “overwhelmed and wait times are getting longer and longer,” she said. Some patients are staying in emergency departments for 5-to-10 days because there are no beds and they're unable to go to alternate care sites or skilled nursing facilities.

“Although hospitals around the state are seeing similar issues in terms of bed capacity and discharging patients, we are disproportionately impacted by COVID here in Sonoma County in terms of hospitalizations,” she said.

Steve Herrington, the county’s elected schools superintendent, said he supported Mase’s order and stressed the need to keep schools open and prioritize academics.

But Jeremy Decker, superintendent of Windsor Unified School District, and Chris Vanden Heuvel, superintendent for the Healdsburg Unified School District and Gary Callahan, acting superintendent for Petaluma City Schools, contended that exemptions for sports — allowing for more spectators at indoor games like basketball — are thought to be just as essential if not more for students’ mental health and emotional well-being at this point.

“We believe that there's a middle ground that still mitigates outbreaks but allows our students to participate in and families to watch their children's extracurricular activities,” Decker said. “It's very rare to have superintendents from Cloverdale Healdsburg, Windsor, Santa Rosa, Sonoma, West County, Cotati, Rohnert Park, and Petaluma all on the same page.”

On Jan. 12, eight superintendents from the largest school districts in Sonoma County sent a letter to Mase asking her to reconsider some of the restrictions placed on indoor gatherings such as basketball games at schools.

Decker noted it is the first time superintendents have questioned a health order since the start of the pandemic.

Some parents noted that local students have had to deal with dozens of missed school days from fires and evacuations in addition to the pandemic, making the chance to finish a sports season even more precious.

“They just want to finish out the season,” said a parent of a high school senior who identified herself only as a third grade teacher in Rincon Valley.

The meeting came at a period of seemingly clashing pandemic realities in Sonoma County, where a high rate of vaccination — 78% among the eligible population — was touted as an individual and communal safeguard against the virus and clearest path of return to some normalcy.

The highly contagious omicron variant has scrambled that forecast in recent months, leading to an unprecedented number of new cases in the community and a corresponding spike in hospitalizations.

On Tuesday, public health officials said an average of more than 1,250 people a day are now testing positive for the virus in Sonoma County, leading to an active caseload approaching 20,000.

Some business leaders redoubled their request for Mase and the county to amend the public health order.

Dorothy Beattie, board chair of the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa, said the theater has followed pandemic protocols and mitigation measures, including vaccination and masking requirements. On the day the health order took effect, the playhouse had to lay off all but 10 of its 40 employees.

“We have 30 people in our community now out of work,” she said. “The financial ramifications for the theater are enormous. We had to cancel two shows. We had a lot invested for upcoming openings — over $100,000 in lost revenues.”

Other speakers on Wednesday urged county public health officials to stay the course.

Rocio Rodriguez, a member of a community group that advises county officials on pandemic-related equity issues, said she the latest debate about health orders reflects long-standing inequalities in the county that have been deepened by the COVID crisis.

“We’re talking about basketball games, but there are families that have lost, prematurely, family members because of COVID, and I just want to reiterate that we’re in a pandemic,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a pandemic that’s causing these deaths and causing staffing shortages and causing these changes to what is normal life.”

Dr. Panna Lossy, founder of IsoCare Network, a local nonprofit that has helped struggling families isolate and quarantine safely, said the health order could have gone even further. Lossy objected to the backlash that precipitated the special board meeting.

“Should the public health officer have to consult with business prior to taking steps to protect the public good? I think that is a terrible precedent that has been set with this meeting,” she said. “I feel that it is an affront that the public health team and other health care providers have had to spend hours to defend such a common sense order.”

During the meeting, Mase said the county had reached another pandemic-era milestone. The number of patients with COVID-19 in local hospitals hit 105, surpassing the peak of 104 cases during last year’s deadly winter surge.

Beirne, the Memorial Hospital executive, and officials from Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health all explained that one of the biggest problems local hospitals face is the inability to discharge COVID-19 patients who no longer require acute care. The pandemic is causing a “gridlock” that is making it difficult to admit new patients, Beirne said.

Local homeless shelters and senior care homes also are being newly hampered by infections and staffing shortages, according to testimony Wednesday.

Leading up to the meeting, Board of Supervisors Chair James Gore, along with Supervisors Chris Coursey and David Rabbitt admitted the county could have done a better job in communicating ahead of time with impacted community groups, including local businesses.

As the conversation Wednesday turned to communication missteps, Coursey again acknowledged the county could do more to communicate its health orders and the reasons behind them, but cautioned against setting a precedent that changes how the county approaches health orders.

“I’m always happy to get together and have discussion about this in public but I don’t want to create an expectation that we’re going to have debates about health orders,” Coursey said.

Throughout the pandemic, the board has stood steadfast by the county’s data driven approach to COVID-19 decisions. Coursey sought to reaffirm the authority behind that approach Wednesday, asking County Counsel Robert Pittman about Mase’s legal powers in such cases.

“The health and safety code mandates that (health) officer take measures to prevent the spread of communicable diseases,” Pittman said. “This general authority includes the ability to close or restrict public assemblies.”

The board did not make any decisions and is expected to resume the discussion during its next regular meeting on Tuesday.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.