Bay Area authorities place strictest order in country: ‘Shelter in place,’ only essential businesses open in 6 counties
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Erin Allday March 16, 2020 Updated: March 16, 2020 1:19 p.m.
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Six Bay Area counties announced a “shelter in place” order for all residents on Monday — the strictest measure of its kind in the country — directing everyone to stay inside their homes and away from others as much as possible for the next three weeks as public health officials desperately try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus across the region.
The directive begins at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday and involves San Francisco, Santa Clara, San Mateo, Marin, Contra Costa and Alameda counties — a combined population of more than 6.7 million. It is to stay in place until at least April 7. Three other Bay Area counties — Sonoma, Solano and Napa — were not immediately included.
The order falls just short of a full lockdown, which would forbid people from leaving their homes without explicit permission, and it wasn’t immediately clear how, or to what degree, it would be enforced. The order calls for the sheriff or chief of police to “ensure compliance.” In Italy and other places that have instituted lockdowns, travel outside the home has been restricted without permission and police have been ordering people back home if they don’t have a reason to be in public.
“The scientific evidence shows that at this stage of the (coronavirus) emergency, it is essential to slow virus transmission as much as possible to protect the most vulnerable and to prevent the health care system from being overwhelmed,” the order states. “One proven way to slow the transmission is to limit interactions among people to the greatest extent practicable.”
The Bay Area orders are the most restrictive yet in the U.S. The region is the first to direct people to stay at home as much as possible and avoid even small social interactions.
In Washington state — where a Seattle-area outbreak has infected more than 400 and killed 37 — public health officials on Monday announced that bars, restaurants, clubs, gyms and other indoor social or recreational venues be closed until March 31. The state also banned all gatherings of 50 or more people. But the restrictions stopped short of advising people to shelter in place and did not ban non-essential travel.
In the six Bay Area counties, non-essential gatherings of any size are now banned, along with non-essential travel “on foot, bicycle, scooter, automobile or public transit.” People may travel for shopping for necessary supplies, accessing health care, and providing aid to family and friends who need assistance, and for non-residents, returning to their home outside the Bay Area. Airports, taxis, and public transit — including BART — will remain operational, but only for essential travel and people are expected to keep six feet apart when possible.
People in the six counties will still be able to go shopping for items such as food and household supplies, and seek medical care. They will be able to go outside for walks or exercise as long as they keep six feet away from anyone they don’t already live with. People who are homeless are exempt from the order but encouraged to find shelter.
People who are older or have underlying health problems are being told to stay inside at all times except for health care under the new directive. They should ask someone to shop for them if they are able.
The order calls for all “routine medical appointments” and elective procedures to be canceled or rescheduled. “To the extent possible, all health care visits that are not canceled or rescheduled should be done remotely,” the order states.
Everyone is to work from home, or stop working, unless they provide an essential service, which includes health care workers; police, fire and other emergency responders; and utility providers such as electricians, plumbers, and sanitation workers.
Grocery stores and pharmacies will remain open, and restaurants may stay open to provide takeout food only. Also staying open: veterinary services, gas stations and auto repair shops, hardware and other home supply stores, banks and laundry services. Businesses that remain open are encouraged to keep both employees and customers six feet apart, including while standing in line. But there are no specific limitations on the number of people allowed inside.
As Bay Area deals with the Coronavirus there are fewer people out in the city and in the streets making the Bay Area look and sound different as the population practices social distancing.
Video: San Francisco Chronicle
Daycare centers may stay open, but children must be kept in groups no larger than 12, and they must stay with the same group of children every day.
The Bay Area restrictions came as the White House on Monday urged all older Americans to stay home and everyone to avoid crowds and eating out at restaurants.
Among the new recommendations from President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force: Over the next 15 days, Americans should not gather in groups of more than 10 people, schooling should be at home and discretionary travel and social visits should be avoided. If anyone in a household tests positive for the virus, everyone who lives there should stay home.
The orders come as cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, climb rapidly around the region. The Bay Area has reported 251 cases since the outbreak began — but more than half of those cases were in the past four days alone. And national testing shortfalls means that there are certainly many more hundreds and possibly thousands of cases in the region that have not been diagnosed, infectious disease experts say.
Increasingly aggressive responses — such as limiting large gatherings and closing schools — have not yet slowed down the spread of disease, and public health officials agreed over the weekend that much more restrictive tactics were needed to force people apart. Authorities fear that regional hospitals could be overwhelmed by a crush of seriously ill patients if the virus is allowed to keep spreading as it has been.
The Bay Area announcement comes just a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom advised that all bars in the state be closed, and that restaurants reduce capacity. Several states have announced closures of bars, restaurants and entertainment venues, and instituted curfews. Also on Sunday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged that all gatherings of 50 or people or more be stopped nationwide — the agency’s strongest advisory so far. As of Monday morning, U.S. cases had topped 4,000, but the actual number of infected people is far higher.
Staff writers J.K. Dineen and Joaquin Palomino contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed.
Erin Allday is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:
eallday@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday
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Erin Allday is a health reporter who writes about infectious diseases, stem cells, neuroscience and consumer health topics like fitness and nutrition. She’s been on the health beat since 2006 (minus a nine-month stint covering Mayor Gavin Newsom). Before joining The Chronicle, Erin worked at newspapers all over the Bay Area and covered a little of everything, including business and technology, city government, and education. She was part of a reporting team that won a Polk Award for regional reporting in 2005, for a series of stories on outsourcing jobs from Santa Rosa to Penang, Malaysia. Erin started her journalism career at the Daily Californian student newspaper and many years later still calls Berkeley her home.