It's been just a week since we heard about the fairly lackadaisical attitude being exhibited by Sonoma County bar patrons amid the pandemic, and now indoor bars and restaurants in the county may have to close again as COVID hospitalizations rise — as they have been doing around the state.
Sonoma County is going to be monitored by state officials between Wednesday and Friday of this week, with a decision possibly on the way to put the county on a watch list with others where COVID case metrics are trending upward too quickly. As KRON4 reports, after seeing hospitalizations in the county rise 62 percent between June 5 and June 7, and seeing the death toll more than double in a week from 5 to 11, state health officials are putting the county on notice.
The decision whether to add Sonoma County to the watch list — which grew to 26 counties on Wednesday — will be made on Friday based on the next two days of data. Currently, Sonoma County has 1,487 cumulative cases of COVID-19 with 22 people hospitalized. That is a 100-percent uptick in hospitalizations since the end of June, and a 31 percent rise in total cases during that same period.
Napa was the latest Bay Area county to land on the watch list today, along with San Benito and Yolo counties. Starting tomorrow, Napa will have to re-close indoor bars, winery tasting rooms, and restaurants that reopened last month when cases metrics appeared more hopeful. Remaining on the watch list are Solano, Marin, and Contra Costa counties, as well as a cluster of counties in Southern California.
Sonoma County reopened indoor dining rooms on June 6, two weeks after allowing restaurants to open for outdoor dining.
As ABC 7 reports, Governor Gavin Newsom spent the bulk of his Wednesday press conference discussing the issue of hospital capacity around the state, as more and more COVID patients are requiring hospitalization. ICU admissions increased 34 percent in the last two weeks, Newsom said, and hospital admissions were up 44 percent overall.
Related: Napa To Shut Down Wineries and Indoor Restaurants As COVID Case Count Climbs
Pandemic Updates: East Bay Counties Rack Up Hundreds Of New Cases
Photo: Trent Erwin