The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino County Department of Public Health:
Today, August 28, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a new blueprint for reducing COVID-19 in the State and revised criteria for loosening and tightening restrictions on activities. The Governor has replaced the County Monitoring List with a four tiered approached. Every county in California is assigned to a tier based on its rate of new cases and positivity. At a minimum, counties must remain in a tier for at least 3 weeks before moving forward. Data is reviewed weekly and tiers are updated on Tuesdays, beginning September 8, 2020. To advance tiers, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will move back to a more restrictive tier. Mendocino County was assigned the highest tier, also known as the purple tier classifying COVID-19 as widespread in the community. The recent changes require modifications to the local Shelter-In-Place Order for businesses and activities. Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan issued a revised Shelter-In-Place order today, August 28, 2020, to align with the new state guidance. The revision was made in collaboration with the new incoming Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren, who will be sworn in on Tuesday, September 1, 2020.
Major changes in the SIP Order included:
-Hair Salon and barbershops can open indoors
-Retail establishments have a capacity restriction of 25%.
-Grocery stores have a capacity restriction of 50%.
-Indoor malls may open (except for common areas and food courts) with a maximum capacity of 25%.
-The Childcare Unit and Children’s Extracurricular Activity Unit have also been modified in accordance with new Small Cohort Guidance (https://www.cdph.ca.gov/ Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/small-groups-child-youth.aspx) increasing from 12 individuals to 14 children with up to 2 supervising adults. As explained in the Small Cohort guidance, guidance and directives related to schools, childcare, day camps, youth sports, and institutions of higher education are not superseded by the guidance for cohorts of children and youth and still apply to those specified settings.
Mendocino County’s revised SIP goes in effect Monday, August 31 at 8:00 a.m. and will be effective until rescinded.Based on the County’s status with the state, local schools are required to utilize distance learning, but can request a waiver for in-person instruction for kindergarten through 6th grade. On August 21, 2020, Health Officer Dr. Doohan submitted waivers for 10 schools, which were approved today, August 28, by the California Department of Public Health. Thank you to Senator Mike McGuire, Supervisor Ted Williams, Dr. Andy Coren, Mendocino County Office of Education Superintendent Michelle Hutchins and our local district superintendents for their help and hard work facilitating submission of waivers to the State. For a list of the schools included in the waiver, please visit the County’s COVID-19 Frequently Ask Questions page at: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/shelter-in-place.
The new Health Order is posted online at https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/novel-coronavirus/health-order. The order is enforceable by imprisonment and/or fine thus we urge all residents and businesses to closely read the order and follow it.
For more information on California’s blueprint for reducing COVID-19 in the state with revised criteria for loosening and tightening restrictions on activities please visit www.covid19.ca.gov.
For more on COVID-19:
www.mendocinocounty.org
Call Center: (707) 234-6052 or email callcenter@mendocinocounty.org
The call center is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
