SAN JOSE — One of Santa Clara County’s top elected officials said residents should expect that the current stay-at-home order to slow the spread of COVID-19, will all but certainly continue past the prescribed end date set for early April.
“In all likelihood, we’ll have another shelter in place order early this week,” Cindy Chavez, president of the Board of Supervisors, said during a tour of county fairgrounds facilities that will be used to help unhoused people protect themselves from the coronavirus.
A source with the county confirmed that an extension of the order, which expires April 7, is going to happen, and it’s just a matter of when this week it will be formally announced.
Chavez’s remarks came on the same day Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicted on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the new coronavirus could kill between 200,000 people in the United States, and that millions could become infected.
Later Sunday, President Trump extended federal social-distancing guidelines to April 30, which Fauci said afterward was “a very wise and prudent decision.”
Whether the local extension will also involve the five other Bay Area counties that co-signed the country’s first widespread shelter-in-place order on March 16 — followed a few days later by Gov. Gavin Newsom issuing a statewide directive — could not be immediately confirmed Sunday. But it is unlikely that Santa Clara County is venturing out on its own.
An extension of the sheltering order should not be seen as a surprise, as public health experts and officials from across the country, including Dr. Sara Cody, the Santa Clara County public health officer who famously led the multi-county brigade behind the initial stay-at-home order, were joined by Newsom in saying social-distancing and other restrictions were likely going to be in place for at least a few months.
In a profile published by this news organization Sunday, Cody said county health officials will assess this week how effective the measures have been. But she was unequivocal in saying, “This is going to go on for quite some time.”
Sunday, Santa Clara County confirmed 55 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, bringing the known total to 646, more than twice the 302 cases reported as of March 22, according to data released by the county Public Health Department.
Through Sunday afternoon, Bay Area counties had recorded 1,925 cases and 49 deaths among a population of about 8 million people, according to data compiled by the Bay Area News Group.
Adherence to the stay-at-home order, by residents and businesses deemed non-essential by the counties and state, has been met with broad compliance, but ongoing ambiguity about where and when people can be out for recreation, as allowed by the order, remains.
Park systems throughout the state and Bay Area have taken the decision-making out of people’s hands by either closing parks or severely curtailing access, after widespread reports of crowding and blatant violations of social-distancing guidelines.
Law enforcement has still been relatively conservative with their ticket books when it comes to admonishing large gatherings and “non-essential businesses” staying open in violation of the order. While some citations have been issued, none of them have been criminally charged.
“Those are last resorts for us,” Santa Clara County District Jeff Rosen said in an interview Friday. “We hope we don’t have to file charges.”
Rosen said a hotline and email address set up by his office garnered 1,500 complaints last week about potentially non-compliant businesses or gatherings, a total that does not include untold complaints made separately to police departments.
He said the majority of calls have been complaints about improper social distancing — too many people too close in line at the grocery store, for instance — that are difficult to assess because they’re often fleeting instances. About a third of the complaints were forwarded to police for follow up.
“While we encourage people to exercise, we encourage them to use common sense in terms of keeping their distance from other people,” Rosen said. “If people are saying let’s have a basketball game, a soccer game at the park, just ‘No.’ It’s not what the public health order is directing to be done.”
Staff writer Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report. Check back for updates to this story.
