Sonoma County’s health officer orders cancellation of gatherings of 250 or more people

To slow potential spread of the coronavirus, Sonoma County’s top public health official on Friday took the extraordinary step of ordering the cancellation for an indefinite period all large community gatherings, certain small events and also prohibited family visits with relatives at area nursing homes.

The order, which followed a similar move by state health officials this week, represents the most restrictive measures taken locally as the new infectious disease that originated in China in January sickens more people daily around the world. More than 143,700 people have been infected as of Friday night in at least 122 countries and nearly 5,400 have died, including 48 in the United States.

Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s interim health officer, resorted to the stringent action even though there is still no hard evidence that the coronavirus is being transmitted from person to person in Sonoma County. The only three people here diagnosed with the virus and hospitalized in Santa Rosa hospitals each contracted COVID-19 during cruise vacations to Japan and Mexico in January and February on two Princess Cruises’ ships.

Mase, however, said late Friday that finding community transmission of the virus through the county’s aggressive surveillance patient testing that began Thursday at four undisclosed hospitals, clinics and urgent care centers is “just a matter of time.”

“For counties like ours, initiating these precautionary measures will likely slow the number of cases,” Mase said.

Her rarely used public health order, which will remain in effect until she rescinds it, calls for the cancellation of any gatherings countywide of 250 individuals or more. It excludes activities such as going to school, work, courthouses or detention and correctional sites.

The directive also requires long-term care centers, such as nursing and residential care homes, to prohibit visits from family and friends or any unauthorized and nonessential people working at or for such places. In most cases, residents won’t be allowed to leave their nursing and care homes, either. Family members do have the right to file a written objection about the restrictions to the county’s interim health officer. And the county’s long-term care ombudsperson and first responders are exempt.

“The whole point is we don’t want sick family members going in there,” Mase said of the strict limits on contact with patients at nursing homes.

Mase said she handed down the order because scientific evidence shows such action is among the most effective ways to slow the spread of a pandemic and the daily increase in cases of COVID-19 worldwide.

Her sweeping directive also limits the size of gatherings of individuals who are at higher risk for contracting coronavirus to no more than groups of 10 people. This includes gatherings at retirement and assisted-living centers, developmental homes and support groups for people with health conditions.

Also, Mase urged any public gatherings countywide of fewer than 250 people held in venues that do not allow “social distancing” of at least 6 feet per person to be postponed or canceled.

Meanwhile, Mase said that as of Friday, 55 coronavirus tests had been conducted in the county public health lab, including 10 done as part of the county’s random surveillance testing of up to 80 people that began Thursday and is expected to be completed next Wednesday. The surveillance program is intended to quickly determine whether there is community transmission of coronavirus. All of the test results so far were negative, she said.

With test kits from national commercial laboratories Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp and ARUP Laboratories, testing for COVID-19 also began Thursday at hospitals and doctors’ offices in Healdsburg, Santa Rosa and Petaluma. The commercial labs that test the patient samples outside the county are required to report results to Sonoma County health officials. Mase said no positive tests from them were reported Friday.

Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology at UC San Francisco, said the virus could be circulating in a community even though testing efforts like what’s occurring here have not yet proven that to be the case.

“Mark my words there are a lot more cases out there,” he said of Northern California.

Rutherford concurred that the order restricting large gatherings by Sonoma County’s public health leader issued Friday are a way to limit the spread of the virus. He said the county’s health officer could take further restrictions, if necessary, such as closing public schools and putting the brakes on public transportation.

These far-reaching restrictions on the public have been proven to minimize transmission of a contagious disease like coronavirus and the number of deaths it causes, Rutherford said.

While many people in the county have been on edge for two weeks, worried that having flu-like symptoms means they might have coronavirus, that anxiety is surpassed by anyone under self-quarantine like Diahanna Post of Windsor.

Post, a vice president of data science at Nielson, the television ratings company, has remained for several days mostly in a second-floor guest bedroom at the house she shares with her husband and 9-year-old son.

She took business trips to Shanghai, China and Milan, Italy - both COVID-19 hotbeds - in January and February, respectively. After telling her doctor at Sutter Health about her recent travel and that she felt sick, she was tested for coronavirus and influenza on Tuesday afternoon. As of Friday afternoon, she was told she doesn’t have the flu, but still has no word on the coronavirus test she said was sent by Sutter Health to the county’s public health lab.

So she continues to eat in the guest room and speaks to her family only through the door.

“My son said to me, through the closed door, ‘I’m losing intelligence points because you’re not touching me,’?” Post said Friday in an interview, adding the experience has been difficult and frustrating.

She questioned the claim by county health officials that results of a coronavirus test done at the public health lab can be obtained in 24 hours.

She finally called the public health lab on Friday and was given surprising news that compounded her agony: the lab has no test sample with her name on it.

Asked about Post’s situation, Mase, the county’s interim health officer, said she couldn’t comment on specific patient tests.

“I can just say we will follow up on the situation,” she said, confirming in general the county’s public health lab should produce a coronavirus test result in 24 hours.

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