Health officials: Keep it small, short and outside for any Labor Day gatherings
Last Tuesday, Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, gave an update about the state’s new color-coded tier system for reducing COVID-19 activity in a press conference.
Ghaly was joined by Dr. Erica Pan, the acting state public health officer, and they emphasized the importance of maintaining safety measures, including wearing masks, physical distancing and hand washing, to decrease the spread of the coronavirus during the Labor Day weekend to avoid the surge in cases seen after gatherings on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July.
Pan said for any gatherings outside of a person’s household, keep them small, short and outside, as those factors help to decrease the risk of viral spread.
In addition to the COVID-19 threat, Modesto is expecting a record-breaking heat wave, with temperatures over 100 predicted through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
With the sweltering heat, residents without air conditioning may want to venture outdoors.
The Modesto and Woodward Reservoirs will be open this weekend, but only to Stanislaus County residents.
“People need to continue to recreate only with people in their immediate household,” said Jackie Dwyer, Director of Parks and Recreation, “They need to maximize physical distancing and continue practicing good hygiene.”
Royjindar Singh, spokesman for Stanislaus County Office of Emergency Services, said there are no changes in the messages to county residents.
“We are doing a lot with our community partners to get the messages out and to get the tools and supplies to our communities,” said Singh.
He said the county has made a concerted effort to provide messaging, education and supplies for combating COVID-19 to the Latino community, which has been disproportionately hit by the pandemic.
Singh said a critical message is that members of your household do not equal all members of your family.
“I know personally how hard it is to not include grandma, your brother, even your cousins,” said Singh, “But that puts everyone at risk.”
After Memorial Day, the COVID-19 test positivity rate, jumped to 7.2% during the 2 to 14 day incubation period, compared to the week (5 days before and 2 days after) surrounding the May 25 holiday. A similar, though more, striking rise was seen after the Fourth of July holiday, when the test positivity rate rose to 18.85% from 8.59%
Ahead of the Labor Day holiday, county officials are stressing the importance of maintaining the COVID-19 precautions so the county doesn’t see another post-holiday surge in COVID-19 cases.
In an interview on the Today Show, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, also hammered home that message.
“Wear a mask, keep social distancing, avoid crowds,” Fauci emphasized about behavior this weekend. “You can avoid those kind of surges. You don’t want to be someone who’s propagating the outbreak. You want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.”
Over the past month, Stanislaus County has made progress mitigating the viral activity and moving toward opening schools, as well as business and other activities, but COVID-19 activity remains widespread in the county, placing us in the purple tier.
Counties assigned color-coded tiers
A county’s assigned tier color is determined by its test positivity rate and the daily rate of new COVID-19 cases.
The lowest tier is purple, where virus activity is widespread with a test positivity rate higher than 8% and a daily case rate of more than 7 cases per 100,000. In subsequent tiers, the numbers must decrease, with red having substantial activity, followed by orange with moderate viral circulation to the yellow tier with minimal activity with fewer than 1 new case per 100,000 and less than 2% test positivity.
The tier system was activated on Aug. 31, and at that time Stanislaus County and 37 other counties fell into the purple tier. A county must stay in a tier for at least three weeks and meet the next tier’s criteria for at least two weeks before moving up to that tier. The tiers will be reviewed every Tuesday.
In addition, the California Department of Public Health plans to require that counties assess health equity to ensure protection of vulnerable residents, however, CDPH has not yet defined the metrics to be monitored.
This tiered system provides a blueprint for counties to open businesses and venues. Activities and businesses that have a lower risk of spreading COVID-19 and can maintain COVID-19 precautions, are allowed to open sooner. For example, shopping malls, including Vintage Square Mall, can open at 25% capacity and hair salons can operate indoors.
On Sept, 3, Stanislaus County’s test positivity rate was 19.02% and there were 14.5 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
“Gatherings not done correctly lead to transmission which impacts our ability to move out of the purple tier,” said Vaishampayan, “To open more businesses indoors, like movie theaters, we need to follow the simple rules of 6 foot distance, face coverings, and hand washing.”
This story was produced with financial support from The Stanislaus County Office of Education and the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 1:30 PM.
