Sonoma County joins Bay Area stay-at-home order

SONOMA, Calif. - Sonoma County is joining Bay Area jurisdictions that pre-emptively adopted stay-at-home orders.

The announcement came late Thursday, and the order takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday. 

"We always said if our hospitals felt they were getting pressure on capacity we would join those other counties and that's what we did," said Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt.

A week ago, five counties and the City of Berkeley adopted stringent policies intended to limit gatherings and curb coronavirus spread.

Those jurisdictions include Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda, San Francisco and Marin Counties.

Since then, Sonoma County's Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase has called it a wait-and-see situation.

"We have fared better until now," Mase said. 

Data shows new daily cases have doubled in two weeks; COVID-19 is surging and hospital ICU space is shrinking.

Should it dip too low, the state of California will impose a stay-at-home order.

Currently, the Bay Area average is slightly under 18 % ICU capacity.

"This means the region will likely hit the fifteen percent capacity level anyway," said Mase.

Also in the last 24 hours, Santa Rosa's Memorial Hospital has indicated it is filling up and short-staffed.

"Their ICU availability is really dropping, they're not completely full yet but the hospital started to say wait a minute, we are running into difficulty," explained Rabbitt.

Memorial is admitting more COVID patients but lacks sufficient staff to care for them.

"I think when you're a medium-size hospital or smaller, you don't have as many options and that becomes difficult," said Rabbitt.

Among other restrictions, stay-at-home orders halt dining at restaurants, close hair and nail services, shutter wineries and breweries, and limit hotels to guests on essential travel.

"Honestly I saw it coming, I think everyone saw it coming," said Marco Padilla, whose father owns Mi Pueblo, a chain of seven Mexican restaurants in Marin and Sonoma Counties.

Thursday evening, Padilla was overseeing operations at the downtown Petaluma location, aggravated by the impending loss of outdoor dining.

"It's getting on nerves, every business owner here is pretty frustrated with this shutdown," said Padilla.

Mi Pueblo employs about 100 people, who will have their schedules slashed as operations shift to take-out only.

And like many in the foodservice industry, Padilla questions, why restaurants? 

"COVID is everywhere, and with everyone going out and doing their thing, they're going to spread it regardless," said Padilla. "Especially with the big stores being open, like Costco, Walmart, Home Depot and the casinos."

Acutely aware of the hardship, Rabbitt pressed for the order to begin on Sunday to give businesses one more weekend day to operate. 

"These are the toughest decisions when you're affecting someone’s livelihood," said Rabbitt. "It is horrible timing, this time of year, the holidays."

And at a downtown Petaluma hair salon, the owner was canceling all appointments for the rest of this month.

"We've been through it but it stings a lot more this time around, " said Josh Sutton, owner of Crown Hair Salon.

During the first lockdown last Spring, Sutton spent the down-time remodeling his salon, creating a Covid-era environment with chairs and shampoo bowls spaced 8 feet apart.

"So many people are busy they haven't really had a chance to process it," said Sutton, who has ten stylists who rent chairs in his salon.

He is grateful that at least Sonoma County businesses got some extra time. 

"It made me feel like she was putting a fight out there for Sonoma County," said Sutton, "by doing her own research and analyzing everything."

In the end though, the peak season becomes a bleak season.

"It's all going to be the same, it doesn't matter when they shut us down, it's going to hurt the same," said Sutton.

The order is set to expire on Jan. 9 but could be eased or extended, depending on conditions.

Sonoma County's move leaves San Mateo, Solano and Napa counties still holding out.

"We've all been preparing," said Sutton, "because when you're one of the last counties in a group it's almost inevitable." 

At Mi Pueblo, Padilla wondered about compliance and enforcement.

"I think now people are fed up and are going to take it less seriously than before."

If it wasn't for the penalties, he believes, many restaurants would not comply.

"Nobody wants to pay a big fine, so people are afraid to stay open but in my opinion, i think everyone should stay open," said Padilla. “But that’s just me.”