San Mateo County Shelter-in-place to extend through May, with expected revisions

South San Francisco, CA   April 27, 2020Shelter In Place Illustrations, Royalty-Free Vector Graphics ...

San Mateo County has announced they will issue revised shelter-in-place orders, later this week, ‘that largely keep the current restrictions in place and extend them through May. The new order will include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower-risk activities.’

While many are in favor of continuing this quarantine as they fear for their lives, and the lives of others, there are many others who believe we have been successful in keeping our County numbers low, and we can open up for business while continuing social distancing, avoiding large crowds, and wearing face masks when around others. Some point to the collateral damage being done, not only to the economy in general but the loss of local businesses who may not survive shuttered doors much longer. In addition, reports of child abuse and domestic violence have increased, along with depression and other mental health issues taking a toll.

What are your thoughts on continued sheltering-in-place? Does it make sense to continue as we have, or what restrictions would you expect to see lifted?

 

The full text of today’s update is set forth below:

Later this week, the Public Health Officers of the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara as well as the City of Berkeley will issue revised shelter-in-place orders that largely keep the current restrictions in place and extend them through May. The new order will include limited easing of specific restrictions for a small number of lower-risk activities.

The shelter-in-place orders in effect across the seven jurisdictions are set to expire on May 3, 2020. Thanks to the collective effort and sacrifice of the 7 million residents across our jurisdictions, we have made substantial progress in slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus, ensuring our local hospitals are not overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases, and saving lives. At this stage of the pandemic, however, it is critical that our collective efforts continue so that we do not lose the progress we have achieved together. Hospitalizations have leveled, but more work is needed to safely re-open our communities. Prematurely lifting restrictions could easily lead to a large surge in cases.

The Health Officers will also release a set of broad indicators that will be used to track progress in preparedness and response to COVID-19, in alignment with the framework being used by the State of California. Future easing of restrictions requires that each jurisdiction and various sectors continue to rapidly build critical infrastructure and systems to respond to and control the spread of coronavirus infections and to ensure the health care system’s ability to meet demand.

This global pandemic of COVID-19 is still in its early stages. The virus spreads easily, testing capacity is limited and expanding slowly, and vaccine development is just beginning. We expect to be responding to COVID-19 in our communities for a long time. As effective as our efforts have been, if we move too fast to ease restrictions, the potential of exponential spread could have grave impacts to health and wellness of our residents as well as the economy.

The Health Officers of these seven jurisdictions have been working closely together in leading a unified, regional approach, to protect the health and safety of our residents. Details regarding this next phase will be shared later in the week, along with the updated order.

 

 

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Richie piazza
Richie piazza
3 years ago

I am a 55-year-old man who is dying I have a really bad heart my kidneys are failing I am under doctors care 24 seven but I am at home

I agree we need to get back to whatever regular is work play out to dinner out to lunch go to a bar and have a beer see your friends family I am already homebound so don’t worry about people like me let’s just get back to normal whatever normal is but let’s work hard

Barry gibb
Barry gibb
3 years ago

Only idiots wants to reopen and go back to work let’s see how well you do at work if your dead you can’t spend your pay check and kids don’t learn anything more important than staying alive in school anyway. They can wait a few more months if it saves lives keep us on lockdown to keep us alive!

Francisca
Francisca
3 years ago

We absolutely can not keep the shelter in place going. The damage from keeping it up will be greater than the covid collaterals and I can’t understand why they can’t see it. Or they can but that does not affect them politically?
We can’t wait for a vaccine we need to go back to life, especially going people! Open the schools and sports! The elderly and people at risk are already sheltering in place anyway. We can not keep everyone under locked down…people need to work, kids need to learn. Make a plan! You had plenty of time to do so.

Renee
Renee
3 years ago

I am in favor of continued sheltering in place for as long as the medical community says we need to do so. Better bored, if one gets bored, than on a ventilator and quite possibly dead.