Sonoma County will create its own goals before lifting coronavirus shutdown order

Sonoma County will create its own strategies for lifting its shelter-in-place restrictions that will include parts of the statewide plan outlined Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, tailoring its measures to reflect the unique population and geography of the North Coast.

One key difference for this county is the timing of the pandemic’s peak, projected to arrive in Sonoma County between May 28 and June 2 - several weeks later than statewide models, Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said.

“We’re behind the curve. We’ll still be behind in terms of our numbers, at least by a few weeks,” Mase said. “We do have a little more time to reassess what’s happening in our own county.”

The number of positive tests for COVID-19 will need to plateau before Mase is willing to consider loosening restrictions, but detections have continued to rise, albeit slowly.

Late Tuesday, the county reported 160 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Of those, 67 have recovered and 88 cases were active. Two Sonoma County residents have died from the disease, according to county data.

“We didn’t predict the shelter-in-place order would have such a big impact in flattening the curve,” Mase said.

Mase did not reveal any specific plans for how the county might ease restrictions, but, offering an example, indicated she is evaluating whether to allow modified summer camps for children with smaller groups or whether some businesses can reopen with redesigned spaces to increase distances between people.

The plan will include close observation of testing and hospitalization data to determine whether any loosening is allowing too many people to get sick and having a plan in place to re-introduce restrictions, Mase said.

The goal is to ease restrictions while not reversing gains made by having people limit contact with one another - all aimed at protecting the most vulnerable populations and ensuring hospitals aren’t overwhelmed.

“We have to evaluate the impact of whatever we did,” Mase said.

Public health officers in the San Francisco Bay Area are discussing how they might align strategies for allowing public commerce and life to restart gradually, she said. The regional plan could include major changes to how businesses and schools operate to limit physical contact and the chance of infection.

Mase said she received the state’s guidelines for easing isolation restrictions Tuesday morning and she thinks they are “excellent benchmarks.”

Newsom’s goals mirror key concepts she’s been using to shape the effort to protect people in Sonoma County, such as focused testing, tracking all contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19, and other measures.

“That’s we’ve been saying all along,” Mase said.

Acknowledging that local public health departments will be steering their own ships, Newsom outlined six indicators the state will recommend local health departments use to begin loosening restrictions, starting with ramped up testing.

The state also recommended that local jurisdictions develop strategies to protect vulnerable populations; hospitals prepare for patient surges and better treatments for the sick; and that businesses, schools and other facilities redraw layouts to limit physical contact. Key, too, will be counties’ plans to reinstate restrictions should the number of coronavirus cases rise.

One of the key features in Newsom’s roadmap to reopening the state involves the ability of local health officials to track and prevent the spread of the virus through effective testing, contact tracing, and isolating and supporting those who are positive or exposed.

During Newsom’s news conference, state Health Officer Dr Sonia Angell said a “key question” is whether the state has the capacity to test everyone who is symptomatic.

Another question, she said, is whether public health officials have the ability to identify contacts of those who are positive to further impede transmission.

“Again this is talking about how we are able to contain the further spread of infection when we identify it in the community as soon as we identify it in the community,” she said.

That becomes essential, she said, once restrictions are lifted and residents start to move about in their communities, creating “more opportunities for potential movement of COVID-19.”

Dr. Mase said Tuesday that although testing capacity has greatly improved in Sonoma County, widespread testing is still not available.

Out of 3,865 COVID-19 tests run so far in Sonoma County, 96% have returned negative results.

“I think we’re building up our testing capacity,” she said. “But can we test every single person, especially asymptomatic individuals? I don’t think we’re there yet at this time.”

Mase said acquiring different testing platforms, including a point-of-care test that could be conducted in a doctor’s office or clinical setting with immediate results, would greatly aid the county’s goal of tracking the virus in the community.

“That would really change our ability to test,” she said. “The good news is, we do have test kits, swabs and more and more testing happening. But I don’t think we’re quite at a point where we can try to test broadly across the spectrum.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.