Napa County residents woke up Monday morning with a distinction that none of their Bay Area neighbors could share: Their county was not on the state’s COVID-19 watch list.
Health officials confirmed that the county was removed, because it has shown an average over three consecutive days of less than 100 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people over a 14-day period, the minimum requirement to get off the list. It was removed from the list officially on Friday.
Whether the county will stay off the list for long remains another question, because the state data has sometimes conflicted with that reported by local health agencies. The figure must stay below 100-cases-per day over 14 days to stay off the list.
The removal from the list allows the county to open some of its indoor operations, including barber shops, hair salons, fitness centers and worship services, but they must operate outside, according to state guidelines. Not until an order by a state health officer is rescinded can those businesses open their indoor operations.
More encouraging news also arrived Sunday, when the state recorded its fewest number of new cases in seven weeks. The state on Sunday reported 3,269 new cases, according to data compiled by this news organization, the fewest since 2,160 were added July 4.
The 17 deaths recorded by the state were the fewest since 16 on Aug. 16.
Overall, California had recorded 12,151 deaths, including 1,053 in the 10 Bay Area counties. State health officials have recorded 667,983 cases of COVID-19 in California since the pandemic began, including 80,721 in the Bay Area.
The 234 overall deaths recorded in Alameda County and the 224 recorded in Santa Clara County were the most among the Bay Area counties as the week began. Contra Costa County has recorded 169 deaths, San Mateo County 128 and San Francisco 77.
Alameda County had recorded 16,723 cases of COVID-19 and Santa Clara County 16,011. Contra Costa County has recorded 12,663 cases; San Francisco 8,871 and San Mateo County 7,535. Those are the top five totals in the region.
Bay Area county’s were expected to update their COVID-19 totals later Monday.
Check back for updates.
