San Mateo County pushes to open

“The health officer is working closely with county counsel to tee up the next orders and once the state lets us know we have to have those ready for prime time,” said Louise Rogers, chief of San Mateo County Health. 

Businesses that may be permitted to begin reopening include hair salons, gyms, theaters and restaurants with indoor dining. The new order would move to align with the state’s recovery road map, shifting focus from which businesses can open to monitoring behaviors. Merchants could be required to enforce social distancing and sanitation practices while the public would be asked to continue wearing face masks and to avoid large gatherings. 

“We looked pretty closely at our measures and whether we feel fundamentally that what we have in place here is solid and will fare us well in an event that we have any increases and we’re in good shape with that,” said Rogers. 

If the variance is granted, local orders will remain in place until a new order is announced. All counties that have applied for the variance despite not reaching criteria have received permission to push forward with the reopening process but some have had to reconnect with the state after COVID-19 numbers began to rise again. Morrow would also have the authority to reclose sectors of the county if he deems the move necessary. 

“You all can be sure that Scott Morrow will continue to have opinions. You can be sure that he will be frank about his medical guidance. At times he will likely have strongly worded sentiments about that,” said Rogers. 

If not granted the variance, officials would continue monitoring cases of infections until the county matched the necessary criteria including reporting no more than one COVID-19 case per 100,000 people and no deaths within a span of 14 days. Officials must also prove the county is equipped with ample personal protective equipment and have hospital space in case of a resurgence of infections. 

There are 2,533 positive cases of COVID-19 in the county, with 99 deaths, 63 of which are in the over 80 age group. There are 40 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, with nine in the ICU. The number of hospitalized patients is down from June 7, which had 51 patients in the hospital. There have been 67 deaths at long-term care facilities, according to County Health data.

Supervisors stressed the importance of the public taking on the responsibility of maintaining protective measures to ensure as little spike in cases as possible. 

“It comes down to personal responsibility. If you’re not wearing your mask, shame on you. If you’re not socially distant, if you’re having house parties, 75 to 100 people ... those are acts that are selfish,” said Supervisor David Canepa during the special meeting. “This county has demonstrated they’re going to follow the rules and I think that’s important. We need to remain vigilant. We’re not out of the woods yet.”